Picking Up Pieces

Thursday December 4th, 2008 - Milwaukee, WI/St. Charles, IL

OWWEEE. I hurt all over today. The impact of the car wreck is starting to hit and I am so sore I can barely walk. I looked at my car in the daylight and it’s really creamed pretty good. Had I been hit that hard on the driver’s side I can’t believe I’d be able to walk at all.

I have been in these kinds of situations my whole life and am surprisingly calm because I’ve been here before. Car wrecks, evictions, job loss, women breaking my heart, it’s all a big blur that runs together into one big formula: bomb is dropped - I clean up the debris.

This is just the latest bomb to go off. I didn’t expect it but now I have to do what I need to do to tiptoe through this mine field and get back to the positive path I’ve been on lately and hope another one doesn’t go off before I can do that. It could have been a LOT worse.

On the good side I’m still alive. This is the third bad wreck I’ve been in and I’ve always wondered if I had three strikes in life or nine lives. I guess it’s nine lives because this one easily could have been lights out just as the last two could have but I’m still not dead yet.

The main difference with this one is I did NOT see it coming. The last two I had about a half a second to react before impact and I knew I was in trouble but this was a blind sided surprise and had I died it would have been the proverbial ‘He didn’t know what hit him’.

That’s probably a good way to die because I probably wouldn’t have felt any pain. Now I’m just sore but at least I can heal from that. Maybe I’ll need to see a chiropractor or get a few massages but I can live with it. At least I get to live at all. I could have easily died.

After the police showed up last night I called AAA to tow my wrecked pile of shredded metal over to my friend Todd’s welding shop near the airport. I’ve known Todd for years and I knew he’d be fine with me parking it there rather than having a bill for tow lot fees.

I had the tow truck driver drop me off at the Motel 6 by the airport and I got a room but couldn’t sleep at all. I kept reliving the big bang of the impact over and over again and my nerves were shot. I remember having the same aftershocks the last two big wrecks I had.

I’m working at Pheasant Run Zanies this week and my phone rang at 9:35 because I had an interview to do with a local radio station. I had only gotten to sleep a short time before and I was not a very good interview. Usually I can give good radio but this one was weak.

I was scheduled to do another one an hour later but my phone ran out of juice because I had been using it to call police and AAA and didn’t have access to a charger. I was all out of phone power and waking power and I needed to get a little sleep so that’s what I did.

After a short nap I showered and had to put on yesterday’s clothes because I sure didn’t plan on staying over and didn’t bring any luggage. All I had were the clothes on my back and some experience because I’ve been in this spot before. I was calm and ready to go.

The first thing I had to do was rent a car. I walked about a mile or so to find a rental lot and it was very tender because I’m so sore. There was ice and snow everywhere so I kept it slow because falling on the ice would be a disaster. I’d have to lay there until I froze to death and that’s no way to die. Give me a sudden violent car wreck or shootout anytime.

I got my rental car from National/Alamo and the woman behind the counter was great. I told her what happened and she made it very easy and quick and told me a story of a past wreck she was in and then another woman who worked there did the same. I always think it’s funny to observe how people think they have to match stories when bad things occur.

They were both very nice though and for whatever reason I always seem to get quality service when I rent cars with National/Alamo. Like Southwest Airlines, they seem to get good people working there and I notice it. These ladies made my rough day a lot easier.

I went to clean out the Toyota and of course I had it packed with all kinds of clutter that was now strewn about like tornado debris. The trunk was blasted and everything inside it was also all over the place including the plastic storage tub with my comedy class papers.

Still, it all could have been a whole lot worse. This is an inconvenience but it’s sure not going to stop me from living or working or continuing to pursue my dreams. I won’t have any trouble finding a new old car to drive and I’ll slap my plates on it and start over again one more time. It’s been too many times in the past so this doesn’t scare me even a little.

It is a little annoying but I’ve been annoyed my whole life. Wasting energy being pissed off or asking ‘why me?’ won’t do any good so I won’t even think about it. Why me? Why not? At this point if there is a God I think He must be doing this just for his own laughs.

‘See THAT guy? Watch, I’m going to rock his whole world…AGAIN! Wait until I pull this latest one - he’ll go crazy! I can’t wait to see the look on his face THIS time!’ Well, if my life is intended to amuse people then I hope who’s ever supposed to be entertained is.

If this is a test I’ll pass it. I’m still in a good mindset and it will all take time to play out but it will eventually do just that. Putting it in the past as soon as possible is the best way to make this go away even though my physical aches and pains are now a daily reminder. Those will go away too. I really can feel I’m maturing and this is just a tiny radar blip.

Tonight I had a show at Zanies. I thought about cancelling and Cyndi the manager said I could have the night off but I felt I wanted to go on anyway. I’ve done several shows over the years after car accidents or getting dumped on or getting fired from a job and they are usually very strong shows. My energy focuses only on comedy and I needed that tonight.

The audience was a little stuff at first but I was really able to open them up and I put my because best effort forward to give them a quality show. I didn’t mention the car accident. The audience doesn’t care. They’ve got their own problems they’re trying to get over. I’m an escape for them and it’s my job to help them forget their woes. Tonight it was mutual.