styrofoam saved my life

Today has been a pretty traumatizing and painful day.

It started off with a trip to the building where they take your blood and leave bruises on your arms as if you were a junkie. Do you ever get the feeling that you might be dying but nobody wants to tell you? I got that feeling this morning during my blood tests. My doctor sent me for pretty routine tests. Plus I needed a follow up to my past years of arthritis (thats right... its not just for old people). Well, I'm not sure why, but they passed me to the front of the line, which was nearing thirty or so people. I got up from the waiting room almost a minute after I sat down in the waiting room full of grumpy patients. I walked out, trying hard not to notice the glares from those who I butted in front of.

So I get into the blood taking room and there were two women waiting for me... Now I've had many blood tests before and none of them have ever required the presence of two people. But then I saw why. Sitting on the counter next to the chair were about 20 different empty tubes, which I would soon come to learn were all reserved for me. I didn't even know I had that much blood in me to give. They took my blood, asking me every two seconds if I was alright. I left the clinic wondering when I would receive the bad news of my impending death. At least I only spent twenty minutes at the clinic when my mom insisted I would wait all day for waking up so late and taking my time to get there...

But my story doesn't end here....

After an afternoon of light headedness and sleeping, I felt well enough to venture downtown with my buddies. So we ventured out into the cold to make it downtown for the premiere of Hide and Seek with Dakota Fanning (which I soon renamed Marco Polo). The traffic was pretty light on the highway (or freeway...whatever you Americans wish to call it) so we were travelling at a pretty breezy speed. Of course, traffic can be finicky sometimes. I had to slow down pretty quickly, which I managed to accomplish successfully. Unfortunately, my impecable driving skills did not save me from my fate. The car in back of me slammed into my car and sent us flying.

Anyways, my car is totalled and the worst part is that I had to stand outside in the freezing cold on the side of the highway for thirty minutes while I talked to a french man who barely understood me. My neck hurts and I wish I lived in America, so I could sue and get loads of money and never have to work again. Later in the night, my friends and I were examining my car and my friend, who knows more about cars than most people I know, pointed something out to me. She points to a square piece of ordinary styrofoam and says to me "Look. That little piece of styrofoam saved your life tonight".

Can you believe it? The piece of styrofoam built into my Honda Civic saved my life. Styrofoam. The same styrofoam that made the cups that I used to tear to shreds as a kid at summer camp. Go figure...

But then I wonder... If I'm dying anyways, as my blood test fiasco assured me, why would anyone (higher or lower being) save me with a piece of styrofoam tonight? If I'm going to die, why didn't we get it over with tonight? At least I would have made the papers.

Anyways, I gotta go nurse my aching arm and neck now.

Maybe tommorrow I'll get hit by a bulldozer.