15 Things

A while ago, one of my sisters-in-law tagged me to post 15 things about myself. I've procrastinated as long as I could, but I finally have the time and nothing besides illness to blog about. I might cheat and post one or two things about my husband and son, since I'm having a hard time thinking of that may things about myself.

1. Let's start with a classic: my most embarrassing moment. When I was sixteen, I crashed a car into a fire hydrant.

I was driving home, and on my own street, when I saw a friend walking home from band practice. I turned to wave to her as I passed, and took the steering wheel with me. The next thing I knew, the car had stopped moving and the sidewalk was a lot closer than it had been a moment ago. I know there was an impact, but I don't quite remember it.

Bingo, our dog who had been in the backseat, leaped over me as soon as I opened my door. He raced down the street towards our house with his tail between his legs. Not surprisingly, he didn't like driving with me after that.

I slowly got out and reassured my friend that I was okay. Three out of four wheels were up on the curb, and the hood of the car resembled an accordion -if it had been smashed into a bright yellow fire hydrant. Neighbors started coming out of their houses. People I knew and saw almost every day, including the residents of the house the hydrant was in front of, one of which happened to be the boy I had a very large crush on. Someone called my mom, who drove up in our suburban. Her jaw dropped. It would have been funny if I hadn't just embarrassed myself in front of our entire neighborhood.

The car was totaled and the fire hydrant was stuck at a 45 degree angle. I learned something that day, though, besides don't turn to wave at friends while driving. Fire hydrants have a trap door in them that snap shut if something (say, a car) smashes into them. So all those scenes in movies with cars smashing into hydrants and geysers shooting out of them is just a load of Hollywood drama. Cool, huh? I could have done without the object lesson, myself.

The fire hydrant had to be reset, or whatever, so it could be used in case of a fire, and they were able to correct its awkward angle. They weren't able to make it look completely normal, though.

For years afterward, when we drove past the fire hydrant that stuck a foot out of the ground, everyone would say "Look, Cyndi, there's your fire hydrant!" Ha ha ha. Awesome.

We don't have a scanner, so here's a picture of my scrapbook page. I was suppose to make it pretty, but the story makes it cooler than any stickers ever will, so what's the point?

That story should count for at least 5 things.

I took too long with this and Michael has woken up from his nap. I'll end here for now and finish my 15 things the next time he falls asleep.