Rescued by a parked car...

So today I went to dinner with Meg, a friend from the old Glenwood days, back in town for BYU's commencement and a few days of seeing old friends. I was so proud of myself, finding her sister's house perfectly, without writing down address or directions, and without even taking a wrong turn. I turned off the car and walked to her door, and imagine my surprise when we walked back to the curb and my car had vanished! My eyes immediately followed the road or twenty-five or thirty feet ahead when I saw my car parked dangerously close to another car that had been parked on the side of the road. That's right, my friends, I left my car in neutral and it rolled several yards until the other car stopped its progress (yay for Laws of Motion!). Meg laughed and I was absolutely crimson with embarrassment, but at the same time incredibly grateful that the neighbors had parked this car in exactly this spot. It was just far enough from where I had parked that my car hadn't had enough time to get a LOT of momentum (thereby diminishing the amount of damage done, if any at all), and at the same time stopping my car from rolling down the increasingly steep slope, into absolute oblivion, and who knows what damaging end. I examined the collision spot on both bumpers, and I could see a little bit of plastic trimming had cracked off of the top of mine, and could notice hardly anything on theirs... maybe a little scratch on the left side of the already-scratched and -dented bumper. Still, I wouldn't feel right without leaving a note.

The funniest (and most awkward) part of the story is this: After backing the car up to examine the damage, I commented I was definitely going to blog about this tonight, and Meg noted that I should probably have taken a picture with the cars touching (I had serendipitously left my camera in the car a few days earlier). We decided to reenact the moment, so I pulled forward ever so slowly while she gestured the distance between cars until we had made slight contact. I noticed a woman across the street looking at us through her window with an absolutely perplexed expression. I waved at her awkwardly while Meg took the photo, and then, the woman and her daughter emerged and crossed the street. I explained the situation thoroughly, and they seemed mostly amused, a little confused, but hardly bothered at all. She said her son would probably not even notice the damage, if any at all (she didn't notice any), but I let them know I left a note with my number regardless. Another good thing was that Meg had actually met the woman and her family, so had a somewhat friendly previous connection. I felt like such an idiot.

This is just what needs to happen on my first official date since coming home. I PROMISE I know that you're supposed to put the car in 'park' when you pull over and get out, and now Meg will probably never let me live it down! You live and learn, I guess, and nevertheless, we both agreed that it was a fun and interesting story, and made for an eventful Saturday evening.

The best part: You can see the woman coming out of her door in this picture!
She must have thought we were insane!