How quickly a Saturday can turn to crap...

Ever since I saw a preview for the movie "Hop", I've been dying to take my nephew Caden to see it. That scene where the animated bunny poops out jelly beans on the hood of the car while James Marsden cringes? Two big advantages: 1) I could just hear Caden giggling uncontrollably at that. 2) James Marsden. Big added bonus.

So I made arrangements with my sister to take him on Saturday afternoon. The English version of the movie wasn't playing in Hull or Aylmer, so our plan was to stop at McDonald's on the way, then cross the bridge into Ottawa to see the 12:45 show at the Coliseum.

I had this weird premonition...Not even a premonition, just a feeling, that I shouldn't be going alone with Caden. I tried corralling my brother, his girlfriend, many of my friends, to come with us, but all had other plans or couldn't make it. So Caden and I were on our own.

We made our stop at Mickey D's, and everything was going well. I had decided that feeling was just imagined. Caden and I were going to have a great day.

We were barely out of the McD's parking lot when I rear-ended another vehicle.

*sigh*

Amazing how quickly a great day can turn to crap...

The guy that I hit had some damage to his back end, but somehow, once again, my car went unscathed. I drive a friggin' beast. Not even a mark on my front bumper.

He called the police and said very little to me. I was freakin', not gonna lie...But I tried to keep it calm n' cool for Caden's sake; I didn't want to upset him.

Luckily, the police were really nice, and obviously the one who came to talk to me knew I was on the verge of tears, because he kept saying to me, "It's okay, it's okay." He didn't even get mad when I had an expired insurance slip in my car. "No problem, no problem." Phewf.

At the end of it all, I was left feeling insanely embarrassed for not paying attention to the cars ahead of me, and feeling like a crappy aunt, because I turned that buggy around and headed for home rather than continuing on to our movie. By the time the police came, the movie time of 12:45 had passed and the next show time wasn't until 3:10. I was also considerably less confident in my driving abilities after that, and the thoughts of wading back into traffic while still shaken up left me feeling very uneasy.

Fortunately, Caden was okay with turning around and heading back home, too. He probably wasn't overly excited about driving any further with his lunatic auntie either.

I told him we'd go see it some other time. I just have to arrange for someone else to drive us. This was my second traffic incident in Aylmer, and my second running-into-someone incident in the past few months. (Luckily, the last one didn't cause damage to either vehicle. It pays to drive a beast.)

My confidence in my driving has been shattered. Completely.