maxxus

So somewheres around 5ish I leave my complex to go get Jeannie en route to Brad+Kelly's for moving assistance and subsequent enchiladaey goodness. I make that drive an average of about twice a day, and I always take the freeway(the 202) that's right next to my complex. However, considering it was just about rush hour I decided I'd take a city street across instead. About 3 turns from my complex I accelerate and semi-cut off this shitty SUV looking thing and get in to the turn lane ahead of it. I stop and pull up a bit to make the right-on-red, and all of a sudden the bitch rear ends me. It takes a second for my brain to register what had just happened, and I turn the car off and get out with a "WTF?" look on my face. This woman gets out of her POS "truck" going "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, are you alright?" I'm like "yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about it." I go around to the back of my car to check for damage, and all I see is this 2 or 3 inch long gash/dent in the bumper, and a small crack on the bottom of it so I'm like "we can exchange insurance info if you want, but I'd just as soon not fuck with that shit, just give me your phone number and name in case there's damage and we'll go on our way." No sense in fucking with the insurance people over a little fender bender, so we exchange names and numbers before traffic gets fucked up or cops arrive. Right about as I'm getting in to my car I hear a chopper hovering overhead and I figure it's a news copter or something but I see this column of smoke rising in to the sky, and I drive off. I was right by the on-ramp to the 143 expressway, and a few hundred feet down the freeway I see this car, and the entire front of it is fully engulfed in flames. It was on an offramp from the freeway a hundred yards or so, in an open area, by itself, accompanied only by a fire truck keeping its distance. Right about this time I try to call my parents to go "hey, I just got in a wreck" but there was no answer, so I call Jeannie and go "Hey, guess what I just saw?" How often do you get to say "hey, I just got rearended and saw a car fire!" After all of that shit was minor lifting and chilling and food, then Jeannie and I headed off to go see Tomb Raider 2. It sucks ass, with vigor. SO bad! It was like the plotline of a 70's superhero cartoon with pretty girl and lots and lots of shiny CG. They also do this really irritating slow effect every now and then, and there's a scene in a lab that's ripped RIGHT OUT of a game called Max Payne. So yeah, unless you're a die-hard Angelina fan, pass on TR2. The games got successively worse with each iteration, and it appears the movies are following suit. After that, we leave, and I head out of the mall in one direction but Jeannie goes "no, go the other way, it's quicker!" So I turn around and do that, and as I'm going up the on-ramp to the 60, one of the alert signs spanning the freeway says "Crash Ahead, Right Lane Closed" I figure "no biggie, just one lane." I soon realize that really means the entire eastbound side of the 60 is bumper to bumper, and full of idiots all going "OMGDRIVING!?!" This asshole in front of us rearends a guy in traffic, but neither of them bother to get out of their cars or anything, and as we pass the accident we see pieces of debris and shit everywhere, and an overturned burned out hulk of a car surrounded by police cruisers. I really hope the occupants of both of those cars got out, but I'm pretty sure people were killed in the 60 wreck. It was a somewhat surreal experience as there was a Phoenix dust storm blowing shit around everywhere, and the sky was pink, and everything was hazy. Jeannie made some comment about it seeming apocalyptic, and it was the same thought I had. I described the scene to one of my online friends, and the first thing she said was to the same effect. Interesting, no? Split-second changes in driving plans led me to witness three wrecks and be involved in one. I deviated from my normal routes and saw all of that. Thank God and or Gods/powers in control that all I ended up with was a dented bumper(and my trunk is kinda fucked up,) and not a flaming car. Several people had very very bad and possibly suddenly terminating days today.