Norm's Birthday - Part 1

Sunday was Norm's birthday and we had a whole day planned out. 

What was planned: Go to Mass at 9:30am in Macon, drive up to Atlanta to meet Kerrie and Eric, spend the day at the market, Trader Joe's, have lunch wherever, go to a 1:15pm showing of El Bulli movie, hang out some more, go have dinner at Iberian Pig somewhere after 5:00pm, go back home.

What actually happened: Went to Mass at 9:30am in Macon, stopped by work to pick up Coquito de Ron that Chef's wife had made for us (Puerto Rican eggnog), got in a car accident on I-75 North. Yes- Got.In.A.Car.Accident.On.Norm's.Birthday [we are okay, no severe injuries, just soreness]. Waited around for the police to get there, got a ride to the Starbucks, had coffee while we waited to be picked up by Pablo's awesome friends, went back home to pick up the Escape and take some Motrin, went to Atlanta to meet Kerrie and Eric, went to the 4:00pm showing of El Bulli move, had dinner at Iberian Pig, went home.

Back to the accident.

We were on I-75 North bound approaching construction zone where the right lane was closed, so all traffic was merging left. Traffic actually came to a stop rather quickly, so Norm hit the brakes and we stopped right behind an SUV, well, apparently the truck behind us didn't see us stopping and ran right into us:

Might want to click on the pictures to enlarge to get the full effect...

So due to the wonders of physics, we ran into the car in front of us - and the guard rail at some point.

This is how the truck behind us ended up... perpendicular to traffic.

That's how the truck's hood ended up.... quite accordion-ly.

The car in front of us ended up with a flat tire and a scratched up bumper.

Tow truck came and took our Jetta away... it was quite sad.

Then we got a ride on the State Patrol car to the Starbucks up the street... Our cop was so nice!

Riding in the back of the State Patrol was the highlight of that morning....

The cooler bag was the only bag in the car, so we filled it up with the Coquito de Ron (we were not about to let that go to waste!) and other miscellaneous items from the car. We looked rather homeless at the Starbucks (please excuse Norm's washed out face... all these pictures were taken with the cell phone).

This is what happened according to the police report. We are car #2:

I was on the phone with Pablo when the accident happened, the phone flew out of my hand and landed on the driver's side of the dashboard... After the accident we could hear Pablo still on the line "hello? hello? have you guys been in an accident? are you okay?" It seemed like 10 minutes must have gone by before we found the phone and grabbed it to let Pablo know we were okay. Norm and I knew we were alive and okay, no blood, nothing appeared to be broken right away. But I can't imagine what Pablo must have felt and thought on the other end of the line just waiting to hear from us... those seconds must have been never ending for him.

Thankfully we were not hurt and neither were the other people involved. My poor car was very hurt though - but it protected us like a trooper!

Sunday morning we had the displeasure of meeting adversity but we kissed her goodbye in little over one hour. We were not going to let her spoil Norm's birthday, so Norm's Birthday - Part 2 will follow...