Water For Elephants

I am so very thankful that I am sitting here at this very moment with all of my limbs intact. Outside where the air is bitter cold and the roads are a risk you dare to take, my life flashed me by so quickly. I have never been in a car wreck, not even an almost wreck. Today would be my first time and I can say it's so unsettling and scary that it takes your breath away.

Let me preface by saying, it's been such a cold week. There are two sides to this story, Austin vs Dallas/Fort Worth.

In Austin, it has been 20 degrees or less since Tuesday. However, there wasn't any snow so school wasn't canceled. We just had to walk around in that miserable, miserable cold. The kind of cold that eats away at your nose and your ears. I was actually pretty warm everywhere else because I wore 4 layers everyday, haha but my poor ears and nose were miserable. All I wanted was snow so that I could cuddle up with my sweet boyfriend and watch movies or talk. Instead, the days went on like normal. But perhaps God heard my little prayer because it snowed last night! It came around 2 in the morning and I knew because I heard people yelling from outside my window. I looked out into the street and to my happiness, the ground was covered with a fine dusting of white snow. It was sort of magical, the way it fell from the sky and how a single girl was looking up to it, smiling with her arms held out to her sides. There was a huge snowball fight that night/early morning. It kept me up the entire time. I don't know if it is because Austinites have not seen real snow EVER, but they went CRAZY. There were literally 50+ people outside on the street at 3 am having the biggest snowball fight I have ever seen. They were like mad, crazy animals running around shouting, throwing snow, skidding down the street on boxes. If I hadn't been so sleepy, I would have joined them.

So anyway, that is one side of the story.

Meanwhile, In Dallas/Fort Worth it has been snowing/raining sleet since Tuesday. They haven't had school since Tuesday!! The roads have been treacherous.

And of course, this weekend would be the weekend that I decided to come home. I'm in the car with my friends, it's the four of us and by the time we leave from Austin the snow has melted and the roads are perfectly fine to drive on. We're cruising on down I-35 and making great time. An hour and a half in, we're passing through Waco. The side of the streets have snow/ice on them and my friend who is driving is cautioned to start slowing down just in case we hit a patch of ice and spin out. A few minutes after that, our first skid of the night happens. It's a moment of no control. It makes you sick and super aware of everything and not aware of anything at the same time. But he gets control of the car quickly and we nervously laugh it off. From that time on, we skidded 4 other times. It got to the point where I would hold my breath every time we drove over a wet/could be icy spot on the highway. I would tell him to slow down like an annoying back seat driver. I was so nervous. My heart couldn't handle another moment of no control.  We're on the highway, 5 minutes from my house; the exit is in sight. There didn't seem to be any icy spots so I let myself sigh a breath of relief. No sooner did I exhale, I could feel the ice beneath us as we drive over it. It was like I was walking over it myself and I could feel us slipping, slipping away. The car starts to veer to the left, then right. My other friend yells "Don't slam on the breaks!" because that's the number one thing NOT to do when you are driving on icy roads. I thought the car would straighten out of it but it kept spinning right and we make a full circle. And what I mean by noticing everything yet not noticing a thing is, somehow I could tell that there were no other cars next to us thank goodness but before I even knew it, the median was right in my view and we were sliding right towards it. I was begging for the car to stop spinning but we spun around once more and  I was sure we were going to hit the median, but suddenly it veered left again and we ended up right next to it, facing the wrong direction of oncoming cars. The car slides to a stop and I literally could not breath I was shaking, crying and laughing all at the same time. AT THE SAME TIME. It didn't make sense. Why was I laughing? My friend in the back was laughing hysterically, saying it was such an adrenaline rush. My other friend didn't say a word. My friend who was driving kept saying sorry and that he needed a minute to breath before he could try and get us in the right direction again. He was shaken. And here I am, crying, laughing, yelling, shaking, FREAKING OUT. I thank God so much for keeping us alive. I thank my friend Jeff who kept calm in that situation and did perfectly. I would have freaked and probably gotten us into a wreck.

Now, I am just sitting in my room listening to calming music. I have so much to do while I'm here at home. I will be productive. I have to be!