Karma

"Don't go out now. It's raining."
"It's fine. I'll be right back."
"Okay, drive carefully."
"I will."

And I did. But I still got into that car accident.

Stephanie was running low on baby food. She had maybe one or two jars left, the rest was the peas she's tried and hated.

I was about 300 feet from the right hand turn I would make into the supermarket parking lot when another driver pulled out from a bank parking lot and slammed into the passenger side door of my car. She thought that my signal meant that I was turning into the parking lot she was coming out of, not the one right after. The police came and she was found at fault, mainly the person on the main road (me) always has the right of way. Secondly, they saw that her license plate came off of her car and was embedded into my passenger side door.

I always wonder about why things happen and what more serious accident I avoided by going tonight.

A few months ago, I dreamt that I was taking Steph to my mother-in-law's house in the morning, which is where she goes on Tuesdays. In my dream a white car was pulling out of the street I was turning on to and I slammed into that car. I woke up right after the dream and thought it was odd. For peace of mind, I made a mental note to take a different route to her house the next morning. Lo and behold, the next morning I completely forgot about the dream as well as the mental note and left to start the car. As soon as I got into the car, I realized I forgot my watch and so I went inside the house to put it on, then ran to the car and off we went. As I was approaching the street I was about to turn onto, I saw a white car pull out of the street and continue on it's way. It was then that I remembered the dream and wondered if by forgetting my jewelry, I avoided an accident. Had I left on time, I may have hit the car. Probably not, but who knows?

And so tonight I wonder. The side of the car that was hit was the side where the car seat is installed. Luckily, Stephanie wasn't with me when I ran out tonight. And because the damage on her side of the car caused the door not to close completely, she can't be in that car until it's fixed. So tonight I wonder if tonight's accident prevented a more serious accident when she would have been in the car.

My mother's motto is that everything happens for a reason. I was laid off from the company from hell last year and now work for my dream company. If I hadn't moved out of my apartment when I did, I never would have met my husband when I did.

So sometimes I have to imagine that if I am late for work, or even if I take a different route than normal to get from A to B, I am possibly escaping something far worse than just bad luck.