A series of unfortunate events

That about sums up the past few days, Mondays specifically.

A couple of weeks ago I met my mom and a couple of her friends/old family friends I've known forever for lunch. I missed moving my car by nine minutes and got a parking ticket. Granted, I "deserved" it, but that is still annoying nonetheless. The ticket price ($25) doubled if they didn't receive it in 5 days (due on a Tuesday) so when I remembered Sunday evening I put it in the mailbox {I'm just at that point in pregnancy where if I don't do something when I"m thinking about it, it doesn't happen...}. The next morning my alarm didn't go off {who knew, if you don't turn off your iphone regularly, or ever, things don't work properly} and I woke up at 7:28 am. I have to leave to drive carpool at 7:34 at the latest. Thankfully, my friend drove the other two kids and I just had to get Anna-Kate to school. As I pulled out I noticed that my mailbox was open, and the envelope containing my ticket and check were gone. Oh goodie. Thus, Monday was spent trying to cancel checks, flag our accounts and contact the county about the ticket (and I won't even go into my current feelings on my tax dollars, red tape and the obnoxiousness that is bureaucracy.).

Lessons learned: 1.) Never put a check in your mailbox. Ever. 2.) If you need to cancel a check it costs $29 (more than the cost of the ticket, in my case). However, if you cancel three or more checks, it's free. Go figure, but I'll take it (thanks to the hubby for figuring that one out!).

The rest of the week remained about on par with that day for various reasons...I was ready for the weekend for sure.

On Sunday I was backing out of my parking place, had my hand on the gear shift to change to drive when I heard a crunch. Scared the daylight outta me! I'm always a pretty cautious driver, especially with my kids in the car, but when I'm pregnant I turn downright neurotic. Sure enough, my bumper is completely crushed, the side panel pushed under, paint job completely shot. Thankfully, we were all fine as my car was completely stopped at the time so there wasn't much impact. Anyway, I spent most of yesterday and this morning dealing with insurance calls, taking the car in for an estimate, meeting the claims adjuster etc. I did some online research for damage/impact and found the evidence to back what I recall of the incident, (cause, you know it happens so fast I was starting to doubt myself when the other driver claimed we were equally at fault backing at the same time) I was clearly stopped, as there was no scraping, just crunch. My car was hurt, hers wasn't, which showed her hitting me. Bottom line, unless the insurance company cites it as so (we both have the same company) we will be out our deductible. Also, it is a minimum two day repair, up to seven plus if there is damage behind the bumper he couldn't see. The Honda guy felt sorry for me, I think, and is getting me his rate for a rental van, so that's another $30+ a day...and truly, I wasn't at fault. Really praying this one gets sorted out.

Lessons learned: 3.) if your car gets hit in a parking lot and you don't know who the driver was, file an incident report with the police and you will be able to file it under your uninsured motorist coverage which is a zero deductible and free rental car, in my state at least. Perhaps that will help in the future. Unfortunately, I know exactly who hit me.

Well, there are your helpful tips for today. You're welcome. :)