Can't sleep.

I woke up a little while ago and my first thought was "Great! I have slept through the night." Then I looked at the clock and it was 1:54, which meant I slept a total of two hours. Not so great.

First thing I did after I looked at the clock was take the flashlight from my night-table and shine it all over the ceiling, the walls, the carpet, the bedcovers...... scorpion patrol. Not a one, thank goodness.... but I still couldn't get back to sleep. Every few minutes, I clicked on the flashlight and did the searching again. Still nothing. But I still couldn't sleep.

I got tired of trying to fall asleep, tired of thinking about angry scorpions having to deal with the pesticide, and just tired of thinking about everything that happened today. At times like this, the computer becomes a release mechanism.

The phone rang this afternoon and it was our young friend Miss C...... she and three of her college friends were on the way back from a country dancing competition and nearly became an automobile accident statistic. C wasn't driving..... and it wasn't her car. In the car was C, her roommate, and two guys from their dance class. One of the guys was driving C's roommate's car-- the roommate wasn't familiar with the location of the competition, so one of the guys offered to drive her new car because "Girls can't drive worth a lick anyway," as he told C and her roommate.

It was Mr. Great Driver who ran a red light....... never even hit his brake because he didn't see the other car coming...... and when the two cars hit, the seat belts didn't lock (because the brake hadn't been touched) and all four kids went flying around inside the car as it rolled over from the impact. All of them went to the hospital.... three were released rather quickly, but C was kept longer because they thought she might have internal injuries.

After a day's worth of tests (most of which were "brutal," said C) they are releasing her either tomorrow or the next day. This is C's first accident (hopefully her last) and her first hospital experience. She is not thrilled with either and can't wait to get back to classes. When I suggested to her that she might need a day or two to just rest up before going back to the college, she told me that she didn't want to miss any more classes than she needed to "because this is college now, not high school."

I told her that she could make up the work.... that other students in her classes could give her notes on the lectures that she missed..... that the most important thing now was to just get to feeling better. I also told her what my dad always told me after I started driving: "When you get in a car, it's always better to be the driver, not the passenger." She said that she wouldn't ever get into a car "if that idiot is behind the wheel." I think she's ticked off at herself for not offering to be the driver when they went to the competition.

C's accident put the scorpion problem into perspective, that's for sure. C is shaken up a bit, but she's fine.... and she shook us up, and her parents, needless to say. But in C's own words: "These things happen, but I'm good..... I'm good."

So. Everything that was floating around in my head is now here. Maybe now I can get some sleep? Without shining that flashlight all over the room every couple of minutes?

If not, I'll be back.