You Never Know When the Next Glass Table Will Hit

One year ago today, I was driving home with my cat in the car after spending a fabulous week in NYC. I had stayed an extra day with my family to celebrate my nephew Aiden's first birthday. It was a warm and sunny August day, and I was blasting my new "Wicked" soundtrack in the car. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, until an octagonal shaped object came flying at me through the sky, that is.

I was driving in the fast lane, and knew something was wrong immediately. I saw the flying object, and must have intuitively veered to the left shoulder. Good thing I did, because what happened next was the flying object came crashing into the right side of my windshield. At first, I had no idea what had hit me. I immediately pulled over, and fortunately, so did the white Yukon that had been carrying the object that hit me. It wasn't until the driver of that car came over to me and told me, that I knew that a glass table was the culprit of all the damage to my pretty car. FYI, glass shattering down the side of your car at freeway speeds is not pretty.



Since the Yukon had been driving in the slow lane, and there was a sun glare, I wouldn't have even been able to get a license plate number if the driver hadn't stopped. I will always be grateful to them for their kindness. I suppose it's the least they could do, since their table smashed through my car, but you just never know what the other driver will do in that situation. If they had taken off, I would have been screwed.

Once the technicalities of exchanging information were over, and my obligatory calls to family had been made, I broke down. It became apparent that if I hadn't moved to the shoulder, I could have been killed. As you can see from the pictures, I was very lucky to have escaped injury, and so was Pippin.

I made it home, and eventually, my car was repaired, with 85% of the exterior having to be replaced. Every now and then, I think of that accident, and how truly freak it was. Sometimes, I even joke about not knowing when the next glass table will go through my windshield. It's really become a bit of a metaphor for the unexpected shit life throws at you.

To this day, I drive differently. I am constantly looking around, and will undoubtedly glare at drivers that are hauling things on top of their cars. I'm sure they all think their items are secure, and will not come loose, but the white Yukon thought that about their glass table too, and we all know how that turned out.

Why tell you this story? Well, on the one year anniversary of what I refer to as "The Glass Table Incident of 2007," I have been thinking about how that accident has impacted my life. I try to appreciate every day for the gift that it is. It's important to do that, because you just never know when the next glass table will hit.