I remembered today that the damage to my right lateral incisor is actually from a long while ago; it was just covered up, and I'd forgotten about it. October 16th, 2003, I crossed into what should have been an empty oncoming lane in order to avoid rear-ending the car in front of me. It wasn't empty. A woman had run the red light coming the other way. Rather than letting Fezdani take the brunt of a T-bone collision I swerved directly back into the impact. That makes it sound like I had time to think about it, but honestly I'm not even sure how I had time to respond.

The investigating officer had to charge me with careless driving – a pretty severe charge – but looked me square in the eye and said "I'm not allowed to tell you to contest the charge." In hindsight I realize that she knew that the other driver's story didn't add up, and that I'd accepted full blame out of shock and confusion. It took me months to realize that there was only one way that car could have been there at that time and traveling at that speed.

This photo was taken the next day. That's me holding the hood open, so no, he didn't died. I got away with two chipped teeth and a slightly sore right arm; if you look carefully, you can see that I actually bent the steering wheel slightly. Fezdani fared a little worse, and had a hematoma in her right leg which lasted for months. The hematoma, that is. She still has the leg.

A few lessons here, kiddies:

1: If/when you get in an accident, watch the fuck out for predatory tow truck operators. Seriously, they tried to charge me $500 for "overnight storage," and nobody had even authorized the asshole to tow my car.

2: The same weather condition has different effects on driving depending on location. The rain that makes country roads a little slower to stop on turns big city roads into a giant oil slick.

3: Yes, you do in fact need comprehensive insurance if you don't want an accident to potentially fuck your life.