Happy Birthday Me!

So, tomorrow is my birthday.  I got my nails filled and they are beautiful and it made me very happy.  Tonight I will meet J at the Salmon Bake for dinner (yay for free coupons!!!).

After I got my nails done, I headed out to grab some groceries to make chicken tacos for the rest of the house before I go.  I grabbed some club soda, water, and crystal lite while I was in there.  I shook up the club soda to make sure that was what I wanted.  I could have just read the back and looked for "carbonated" but NOOOOOOOPE.  I just shook it.

Once in my car I started to prepare my beverage.  Yep, you guessed it.  I forgot that I'd shaken up the club soda.  As it was exploding all over and I was in a mad dash to clean it up, my car got hit.

Yeah, I didn't notice.  What I did notice is the pick-up pulling in beside me, parked at a really cruddy angle so I couldn't back out.  He gets out and comes to my door.  I open it up and I'm like, "how do you expect me to be able to back out?"  So he says he's sorry and I shake my head and shut the door (still have a club soda mess all over).  He didn't move.  I opened the door back up and he told me he was sorry he hit my car when he pulled in and he could give me $100.00 right now for the damages.

I headed out to take a look, totally in disbelief because I didn't feel a thing.  there was a scrape on the bumper.  Some of his paint rubbed off onto mine.  It didn't pick off, but I'm sure it would buff out.  I said $100 for that was too much but $50 should be enough to cover buffing it out.

He'd been having one of those days.  First day of college classes, covered from head to toe in grease from the job he just got off of, left all of his books at home . . . yadda, yadda, yadda.

He headed into the bank for the cash and I continued to clean up the huge mess in my car. While I cleaned, I thought about how crappy it was that I had soda everywhere.  I then thought about how lucky I was to be going out to dinner, that my birthday is tomorrow, and that I have basically everything I need.  I then thought about how much we could use the $50.  Especially since I'd just spent at least that on groceries and $150 on parts for J's truck.  Then I thought how selfish that was of me.  Its just a scrape.  My bumper is intact, light didn't break - I'm so lucky.

When he got back to my car with the money, he asked if I was sure it was enough.  I said "forget it."  I told him to do something nice for someone, we all have days like that.

I feel good about that - and yea, I'm a sucker.  He was rushing to park into a spot he didn't fit and coming from the wrong way.  I just hope he takes this and slows down and relaxes a bit so something worse doesn't happen.

I'll look at that scrape from now on and remember to relax.  I'll think of it fondly, just like every baseball and hockey puck shaped dent.  Every ding leads to a fond memory.  Sometimes, coming out on top could just mean the feeling you have about yourself, not something monetary.  Hope ya'll have a great My-Birthday-Weekend!  ;)