Full Moon

When I got home after a very long day, my husband reminded me that it was a full moon.  Ah, I said. That explains everything.

I had a stressful morning in which I completely blew off my scheduled 4.5 run.  I hate not keeping to my schedule, but due to a deviation to my normal routine, I simply couldn’t get it in. I made it to work late, and then had a stressful day at work.  All day long, when I wasn’t thinking of the work stress, I was feeling guilty about skipping my run, and trying to figure out how to get it in.  The issue was that I had to hurry up and get home after work to get DS#2 to his hockey practice.  I rushed home, and on the off chance that I might be able to have enough daylight left, I dressed in my Under Armour and packed my “gear” to take with me.  I got DS#2 in the car and off we went.

We were just a couple of miles from our house when a really scary thing happened: I hit a deer.  🙁  DS#2 and I were fine, but it was quite a shocking experience, to say the least.

Now I have lived in the country for 11 years, and I see deer all the time.  I am experienced enough to know that deer tend to run at dusk, and yet, I will admit that I was zoning a bit while driving, thinking about whether or not we’d make it to practice on time, and whether or not I would be able to get my run in.  Next thing I knew, I was hitting a damn deer. 🙁 I am not ashamed to say I screamed like a girl when it happened.  I immediately looked in my rearview mirror and saw a deer jumping across the road.  I was stunned. If I’d hit it at the speed I was going, it would not have bounded away.  But I didn’t see any other deer, in the road or otherwise!

It was definitely one of those surreal moments where you began to doubt whether what you thought just happened actually did happen.  I got out and looked at my car, which clearly indicated that something had happened.

Then I looked back behind me, but all I could see were pieces of my car.  After I looked closer, I began to see the hair that clearly indicated I’d hit an animal. (I will spare you the long story about how I figured it out, but suffice it to say that later that night, I did finally figure out that there had actually been two deer, and the second one [the one I hit] did not survive. 🙁 )

I stood there in shock for several moments, but eventually, the hockey mom in me took over and all I could think about was getting my son to hockey practice. He loves hockey, and I knew he’d be disappointed if we couldn’t make it.  I got back in the car and tried to drive it, but with all that plastic rubbing on the wheel, that wasn’t going to happen.  At that point, I texted the above picture to my husband and called him.  I wasn’t overly dramatic about it; I just wanted to know if he thought I could drive it far enough to get DS#2 to practice.

The Lord does wondrous things, and at that moment, my neighbor (who happens to be one of my best friends) happened to drive by on his way home.  Once he realized that it was pieces of my car he saw on the road, he backed up and immediately got out to help me.  He was calm and cool (like he always is) and he very quickly grabbed some tools from his truck and fixed up my car so that I could drive it.  I won’t say it was the most pleasant drive, but I made it to the ice rink and was able to get DS#2 on the ice just in time, so that’s all that mattered.

After DS#2 was skating and I had a moment to breathe, I realized that, more than anything, I wanted to go run.  I was just shaking and feeling so stressed, and I knew that if I could go run for a while, it would help calm me down.

So, that’s exactly what I did.  Even though it was getting dark, I just went out and ran.  Suddenly, I forgot about work, about the car, about all the other problems facing me, and instead focused on my pace and keeping my footing solid in the sometimes slippery conditions. I took the time to reflect on my blessings, thanked God for the fact that the accident could have been so much worse but wasn’t, and also thanked Him for sending my neighbor when I needed him.  I also took a few moments to enjoy the beautiful sunset, and even stopped running to get a quick picture.

I made it back to the rink just as practice ended, having logged 4.3 miles.  After I went in and untied DS#2’s skates, I left him to undress himself (in the care of the coaches, of course) and then finished the last .2 miles.

When it was all over, I still had to drive home in my car that made really worrisome noises and had a steering wheel that was now almost at a 90 degree angle from normal (hitting a deer really messes with your alignment!).  I also had to get gas since I was on E, and then I ended up slipping and falling at the gas station. 🙁

But despite all that stress, I felt good for having gotten my run in, and knowing that, despite all the challenges of my day, I at least had one accomplishment to show for it.

Actually, I had two accomplishments, because when I got home, I made sure to have one of these. 😉

Thanks for reading my slightly whiny, very stressed out post today!