Saturday in the Park (Unintentionally).

Okay, so in the past three days so much craziness has happened, I'm going to have to split it up into a few different posts. But let's start with this afternoon.

I had quite the adventure.

I went to lunch with a couple of friends and had a great time. The craziness started when I was trying to leave.

I had parked in a parking garage to the left of a big concrete column. As I was leaving, I needed to go right. For those of you playing at home, that means that as I was backing out I was turning toward the column. Do you see where this is going?

I was looking left to make sure no cars were coming while I was backing out and turning right. As I turned my head to look right, I noticed how close I was to the column. But what I didn't realize was that I had not yet cleared it. I thought, That was close! and kept going. Half a second later I heard the screeching sound of my car scraping against the column.

Not knowing what to do, I then stopped backing out and went forward instead. My car screeched again as it scraped the column once more in the opposite direction. I straightened out my car and continued backing out, thankfully clearing the pole this time. And then I exited the parking garage, hoping the damage wasn't horrible.

As I was exiting the garage, I got confused about which way I was going and, though it really didn't matter, accidentally chose the more difficult way. Which I realized as soon as I turned, but it was too late so I was going with it. I knew what to do, so it wasn't a big deal.

Except I got distracted and missed the street I was supposed to turn on. Naturally, I assumed I could turn on the next street and it would lead me to the same place. Naturally, I was wrong.

I ended up on a weird street and was briefly concerned that it was going to lead me off a cliff. Instead, it led me to a park.

Side note: I have been to this park before but have never driven myself. It is across the river from where I work and I have always wondered how to get there. Now that I have figured it out...I really doubt I could do it again. Probably not even with a map.

Anyway, I pulled over in the park to gather my thoughts and come up with a game plan and check out the damage on my car and respond to a text message. My car looked like this:

Which was a lot better than I had imagined. So it's no big deal.

Anyway. This park is really confusing. Like, it has a bazillion roads to choose from. I wasn't sure what to do so I just went straight. I followed the road a little ways but it just led me to a dead end. So I turned around and turned onto a street that had this sign:

This photo is from google. I am not so crazy as to stop and take a picture of a sign just 

because I am already writing the blog post in my head.

I have no idea what this sign means. I have a vehicle and I'm pretty sure it has a motor...does that mean I drive a motorized vehicle? Wouldn't a de-motorized vehicle, like, not move? Confusing.

But there was a stop sign just up ahead facing me, and why would they have a stop sign if cars weren't allowed there? I decided that I was not in fact driving a motorized vehicle (even though I'm still convinced my car does have a motor) and that it was okay for me to proceed. I came to a turning point so I picked a direction and turned. I was sad for a minute because it led me to yet another dead end, but then I realized that there was an exit!! That led to a street!! That led to another street from which I knew how to get home!!!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was below empty on gas this whole time. And unfortunately there are no gas stations in the park.

Maybe that wasn't as crazy as I made it sound but it felt pretty crazy to me. Sometimes I don't even know how I manage to be so...I don't even know what the word is. Me. That's the word. So me.

And what will I be like when I'm 30? I'm sort of afraid to find out.

Stay tuned...

You Alone Can Rescue.

I know I exaggerate a lot, and so what I'm about to say will probably not mean much to you, but it's for real this time, y'all.

I almost died today.

It was a normal Sunday morning. I got up, got ready for church, and was in my car by 9:30 to arrive 15 minutes early for the 10:00 elementary girls' class that I help with.

I turned to the country music station because they do a top 40 countdown on Sundays. I backed out of my driveway, pulled out of my neighborhood, and got on the ramp to I-35.

I drove up the ramp, rocking out to Two Black Cadillacs by Carrie Underwood, I turned the corner -- freeway in sight -- and I felt my car start to drift to the right.

That's weird, I thought. I was driving straight and I knew my alignment wasn't off, so I wasn't sure why my car was veering to the right. So I lightly turned the wheel to the left to compensate.

But it went too far to the left. Which didn't make sense, because I had barely turned the wheel. I turned the wheel to the right -- again, lightly -- because I was in the far left lane and was getting closer and closer to the side of the ramp (which, by the way, was about 20 feet above the ground).

My car went even farther this time, taking me from the left shoulder to the far right lane (it was a two-lane ramp). As I veered closer to the far right side of the ramp (again, about 20 feet off the ground), I decided I was about to die. But I wasn't going to give up just yet.

I made one last left turn of the wheel to get away from the edge of the ramp and then slammed on my brakes. My car momentarily spun out of control before coming to a complete stop right in the middle of the two lanes.

My heart was racing and I couldn't really breathe, but I needed to get out of the middle of everything, so I very, very carefully pulled into the shoulder, turned on my flashers, and called for help (because I was NOT about to try driving again).

 This was almost me.

Thankfully, my mom was just about to leave for church, so she was able to come pick me up. My dad came by a little later to look at my car and move it into a parking lot where it would be safer.

I was late to church but I don't think anyone really cared about that when I had just narrowly escaped death.

The crazy part is this: when I turned the corner on the ramp, just seconds before my car TRIED TO KILL ME, there were cars all around me. When my car suddenly lost control, all the cars that had been near me had gotten ahead of me, and no one was behind me. The area was completely empty until I had made it safely to the shoulder. Once I was in the shoulder, there was pretty much a steady flow of traffic. I was all over the road; had there been anyone there, I would have absolutely hit them.

Had I hit the side of the ramp, there's a good chance I would have gone over the edge at the speed I was going at. I was incredibly close to hitting both sides, but in both cases was able to swerve back to the other side.

As I was sitting in our church service later, we sang the song You Alone Can Rescue. These are the words:

"You alone can rescue, You alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave

You came down to find us, led us out of death

To You alone belongs the highest praise."

I know that this song is technically talking about salvation and Jesus dying on the cross for us, but today I felt it had another meaning, because God literally rescued, saved, and led me out of death (or at least some severe injuries) this morning. And He definitely deserves the highest praise.

I wish I could credit my awesome driving/remaining-calm-in-a-crisis skills, but I can't. All glory goes to God on this one.

There is simply no other explanation.

Tonight, My Worst Nightmare Came True.

I always knew it would happen eventually. But deep down, I always hoped it wouldn't. It was the worst thing ever. I was so scared. I was about to cry.

That's right: I got lost driving home, and my phone was dead.

Those of you who know me well are probably laughing your face off right about now.

It was the worst experience ever. I was driving home from babysitting over in Lake Worth. I couldn't remember exactly how to get home, but I knew I was supposed to go on 820. I wasn't sure if it was east or west, but I live in the southwest, so I went for west.

Last time I came home from their house, 820 took me to 35, and I could easily get home from there. So I'm on 820, and I am NOT seeing 35. 820 West turned into 820 South. Last time I drove on 820 South, I never ran into 35. Instead I ran into 20, and got home that way. So, as I'm driving down 820, I see a sign for 20 West, and think "Oh, that's where I'm supposed to go!" I exit. I immediately know that was a mistake.

Nothing looks familiar. There are no street signs. No exits. Nowhere to turn around. My phone is dead. Is this really happening to me???

 I keep driving. 5 minutes later...a sign! A sign with the words "Weatherford" and "Abilene," and another sign that says "Aledo."

Um...what happened to Fort Worth?

At this point I'm pretty sure I've gone too far west, so I exit Aledo, turn around, and get on what I think is 20 East.

Now all I see are signs for Dallas, Shreveport, and downtown, none of which are places I want to go. Suddenly, the exit numbers start over at 1...wait a minute. Whenever I'm traveling on 20 East, the exit I take to get home is like 300-something...

There's no way I'm this far from home.

That's when I realize I've somehow ended up on 30 East. I'm so confused.

I see a sign for 820 South, and am about to turn back on it, when I see the next sign up says "Las Vegas Trail". I KNOW THAT SIGN! It's right after (or before, when coming east) Cherry Lane, where I have my voice lessons. So I continue on 30 and make my way home from there. Let's just say I was kind of in a rush to get home before my parents filed a missing person's report on me.

So, in a nutshell, tonight I left Lake Worth around 11, took a quick detour through Aledo, and barely made it home in time for the 12 o'clock curfew. And, in another nutshell, what I learned is: charge my phone and bring a map.

Yeah...you'd think I'd have learned that by now...

*By "tonight," I definitely mean last Friday night, when this happened and I wrote this. My internet was being stupid and wouldn't let me post it last week. This is the first chance I've gotten to post it since my internet's been back up. :)