Prepare to be in shock

No I'm serious.  Prepare to be in shock.  Maybe not the jaw-dropping type of shock but pretty close.

Where should we start?  Hmmm.....Thanksgiving 2006 (could have been 2005?) I was driving home from work to get packed up to fly to LA to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and bro-in-law.  I was on the highway interchange, not moving due to traffic.  Suddenly I feel like I just rolled over a soda can or something.  But wait, I wasn't moving.  What just happened?  I start looking around my car and notice a black car in the lane to the left of me zooming off.  Then look in my rear view mirror and see the guy behind me jerking his neck to look at the side of my car.  Yes my friends, within a split second, I became a victim of a hit-and-run accident by said black car.  The dent remained in my car until December 2009 when I used wedding gift money to fix the car.  That was about 2 weeks ago and I've been driving with my shiny new, un-dented car with delight for two weeks!

Cut to today.  When sick with the flu I stay hydrated with White Grape Peach juice (for the sore throat) and then migrate to the red Gatorade once I just have a cold.  I ran out of Gatorade today and had to head to our local Fry's grocery store to replenish.  Leaving Fry's, I unloaded the goods in my trunk and got in the car to go home to my warm bed.

Now I am extremely cautious driver in parking lots.  I don't know if it's just Arizona, but people are crazy here when backing out of spots or driving through lots trying to find spots.  So I've always been an insanely slow driver in parking lots just to be extra careful.  Today was like any other as I slowly backed out, checking all around me for any moving cars/brake lights.  I continue to back out and then go to turn my wheel around to fully exit the parking spot and get on my merry way, when I see a whale of a car start to back out  and back out FAST.  I start honking furiously and then when I see she ain't listening, I start to try and get back in to my parking spot to avoid getting hit.

Too late.

>Crunch<

Urgh.  Did that just happen?  Did I just get hit in the Fry's parking lot?  Did somebody just hit my newly fixed car??

Yes.

It happened.

I go back in to my parking spot and breathed a big sigh to center myself before going to talk to the lady.  I looked out of my rear view mirror and saw her continuing to back out of her parking spot.  Waaaaaaaa??  Is she seriously leaving???

Anger.

Adrenaline.

SHOCK.

She really has the balls to leave the scene??  I immediately jumped out of my car and the GI Jane came out.  I ran in front of her car.  Yes.  I know.  It's kinda extreme.  I can't explain it to you.  All I can say is that I felt intense anger and the realization that I if I didn't do this it would be my second hit and run accident.

What am I doing?

Am I really standing right in front of a moving car??

A car that is trying to get away from an accident???

What am I doing?

She stops her car.  I look at her.  She looks at me.  I start shouting at her (because she wouldn't roll her window down) telling her that she just hit my car and that she needs to park.  What does she do?  She inches her car towards me.

Umm, seriously?

You're going to seriously threaten me with your vehicle?

(Ok - wait, that sounds serious)

Shit

Well, she isn't going to run me over in public

Right?

Right???

Adrenaline now raging through me I keep yelling at her and tell her that she needs to stop her car and get out.  Ok - maybe yelling is an exaggeration.  I was more so shouting because even though I've asked her to roll down her window she won't so I had to project my voice.  Oh whatever.  Maybe I was yelling.  She looks me straight in the eye and is obviously trying to talk to me but I can't hear a thing she is saying (hello, roll your window down lady!).  She inches towards me again with her car.

What?????????????????

SERIOUSLY???????????

Ok fine, let's play this game then.

"I'm not moving lady".

"You need to park your car and get out".

"You're not going to get away with this".

Did I mention that I can be kind of stubborn?  Yeahhhh, I can.  :)  Finally the lady (with about two inches between her car and my knees) stops the car and gets out.  By this point I truly am livid.  I mean this lady has honestly tried to threaten me with her vehicle?  And who knows what she would have really done?  Maybe she would have hit me?  But even if it was just a threat, who does that?  Who does that??

I point out the damage to my car and she finally says "Oh, I see".

URGH.

Really, now you see?

You didn't see me jumping up and down in front of your vehicle and you couldn't have looked over before??

She gets back in her car and gets back in to her original parking spot while I continue to block her exit just in case she decides to try and escape again.  Two ladies who watched this whole thing came up to me and volunteered to be witnesses.  Thankfully they confirm my perception that I'm not at fault and that the lady reversed after I did and that they had heard my furious honking. 

I walked up to the lady and I have to say I am furious at this point and start asking her questions mostly around why the hell she was trying to drive in to me as I stood in front of her car.  Funnily enough she couldn't answer that question.  Huh.  Go figure.

She tells me her insurance and then tells me that she doesn't have her card on her.  Umm.  Great.  She probably doesn't even have car insurance.  I tell her that I don't believe her.  I ask her for her phone number.  She refuses to give it to me.  I tell her that I will call the police to assist if she doesn't cooperate.  She reluctantly gives me her number and then shows me her driver's license.  I take down her dl number and her license plate.

And then from my heart, I tell her this:
 

"You know I'm actually a really nice person Mary.  I know you probably don't believe that because I am yelling furiously at you but honestly I am.  But when you tried to drive your car in to me that really makes it hard for me to be nice to you.  Do you see where I'm coming from?".

And she says "Oh that?  Oh I'm sorry about that".
Sigh.
That's when I realized that she was either over-medicated or had some sort of early onset of dementia.  She wasn't with it.  Her responses were slow and she talked slow too.
Sigh.
But I do have to say that her apology had no heart in it.  I don't know if she was embarrassed or what but I was disappointed.

Finally feeling like I had no other recourse I told her goodbye and got in to my car.  If I could have gone back in time, I would have pushed her for her insurance card or made her call All State there and then to confirm her coverage.  But I wasn't thinking straight.  I was just so mad.  And I probably looked so ghetto.  It was so an episode of Jerry Springer but again, I wasn't thinking.  The only thing that kept running through my mind is that I couldn't just let her get away with it.

I did call the Police but they won't file a report because we were on private property.  I've already called my insurance and filed a claim.  Also called the witnesses to thank them.  Sigh.  The adrenaline has rushed out of me and now I just feel exhausted and disappointed in man-kind.  This is the world that I want to bring babies in to?  Sigh.  I mean I guess I'm being dramatic.  I know that not everybody would do something like that it's just hard to keep things in perspective after you have a giant van driving towards your knees, ready to take you out.  And honestly, my car has been hit before and although I was mad about it, I was courteous and respectful but today all of that flew out of the window the minute I realized what this lady was trying to do. And is the damage that bad?  No.  Not at all but I filed the claim anyway because what she did was wrong.  Do I feel that it is in my right to create justice?  Well, I know I shouldn't but I can't help it.  I can't help but feel that she has to pay for this.  And honestly, if she hadn't tried to drive in to me I would probably just let it go because the damage is fairly insignificant but I can't let it go.  Not this time.

Sigh.  I'm exhausted. Time to catch up on Glee and think about a pizza for dinner.  I deserve it, no?

Post Edit:  Oh and.... I want to say a big thank you to Mo for listening to me on the phone.  It wasn't pretty and Mo really helped me calm down.  :)