zoiks!
A year ago tonight, I was hit by a car riding my bicycle. This might have been the single most important things that has ever happened to me. If you choose to continue reading you will find out why.
My friend Jason had announced that he was moving to NYC to get out of Charlotte for a while. Charlotte had jaded Jason as it soon would me. Jason was a fellow bike messenger and he had won most of the Alley Cat races that we had around Charlotte, but in the previous year there had been a new fleet of fixie riding fashion clad North Davidson types.
Aside from Jason himself, only I and Arleigh Jenkins ever put on memorable underground races or on predictable dates. I took it as my responsibility to give Jason what he needed as a last impression of Charlotte. I planned out a punishing alley cat race that would make him struggle to win. And win he did.
As I was riding from “home base” to the finish line of the race I was riding at full clip to make it before the first wave of finishers would. I was punishing my lungs and legs down pecan ave. as a 78’ Chevy Caprice made a left turn (into me) that scooped me up onto it’s hood. The startled, inattentive driver instinctively slammed on the brakes shooting me to the ground shoulder first and with my foot still in the toe clip. The flimsy bill of the hip-cap I was wearing broke and sliced a clean cut into my forehead which looked way more intense that it turned out to be when cleaned.
The first thing I did when I got home even before taking pain killers with a few beers to reduce the swelling was call Rachel.
Rachel and I had met through mutual friends a little over a week before, and we hit it off right off the bat. Off the bat and out of the park and through the windshield of some un suspecting ticket scalpers car in the damn parking lot. We met and spent a concentrated amount of time together that weekend unsure of when or how but that we’d for sure continue to hang out again. Rachel lived about 4 hours away on an island on the beach.
I called Rachel first. I had a broken clavicle (obvious but yet to be prognosed) I couldn’t continue working the rest of the summer as a bike messenger with a broken clavicle! I called Rachel first and she offered to pick me up in charlotte that coming weekend and take me back to her home on the island on the coast and take care of me for a week or so.
Yeah DUH. I took her up on the offer not knowing how this concentrated time to be could or would turn out. I just knew deep down that I would be an idiot not to.
Yeah no shit, I would have been an absolute waste of human if I had turned down an offer to be taken to a beach island by this beautiful woman that was willing to take care of my broken ass.
A lot can be assumed about the week at the beach I spent with Rachel. But only she and I will ever know the respect and experiences and emotions we shared with each other that week. Having been relatively unfamiliar with each other up until that point(with the exception of known shared interests) it was the best way that we could have ultimately or eventually become such a big part of each others lives. That week started what has brought us to where we are right now.
Over the following months we shared many powerful and emotional events that put us in a place to where we could help each other realize what our goals were. We continued to learn about each other. We have helped each other overcome challenges, and challenged each other. We have slipped up and we have helped each other up, we have changed and grown and developed focus on creating a life with each other with goals and with strong personalities.
Getting hit by a car one year ago brought me to where I (we) are right now, living together in our home in the mountains. It fast forwarded the relationship to be developed with Rachel but it also brought me a hefty settlement sum that in parts funded the move and a period of unemployment. It funded a motorcycle and a bitchin’ bike that I race on the track, home furnishings and settled debts I owed to collectors and the IRS. We celebrated our one year anniversary a little over a week ago, because we pretty much became a couple that first week end, but one year ago today was an unpredictable event that put a magnifying glass on what was to come.
I am thankful for the breake I was given (PUN INTENDED! Subtract one of the e’s) despite the pain. And I am thankful for the life Rachel and I have now.
My friend Jason had announced that he was moving to NYC to get out of Charlotte for a while. Charlotte had jaded Jason as it soon would me. Jason was a fellow bike messenger and he had won most of the Alley Cat races that we had around Charlotte, but in the previous year there had been a new fleet of fixie riding fashion clad North Davidson types.
Aside from Jason himself, only I and Arleigh Jenkins ever put on memorable underground races or on predictable dates. I took it as my responsibility to give Jason what he needed as a last impression of Charlotte. I planned out a punishing alley cat race that would make him struggle to win. And win he did.
As I was riding from “home base” to the finish line of the race I was riding at full clip to make it before the first wave of finishers would. I was punishing my lungs and legs down pecan ave. as a 78’ Chevy Caprice made a left turn (into me) that scooped me up onto it’s hood. The startled, inattentive driver instinctively slammed on the brakes shooting me to the ground shoulder first and with my foot still in the toe clip. The flimsy bill of the hip-cap I was wearing broke and sliced a clean cut into my forehead which looked way more intense that it turned out to be when cleaned.
The first thing I did when I got home even before taking pain killers with a few beers to reduce the swelling was call Rachel.
Rachel and I had met through mutual friends a little over a week before, and we hit it off right off the bat. Off the bat and out of the park and through the windshield of some un suspecting ticket scalpers car in the damn parking lot. We met and spent a concentrated amount of time together that weekend unsure of when or how but that we’d for sure continue to hang out again. Rachel lived about 4 hours away on an island on the beach.
I called Rachel first. I had a broken clavicle (obvious but yet to be prognosed) I couldn’t continue working the rest of the summer as a bike messenger with a broken clavicle! I called Rachel first and she offered to pick me up in charlotte that coming weekend and take me back to her home on the island on the coast and take care of me for a week or so.
Yeah DUH. I took her up on the offer not knowing how this concentrated time to be could or would turn out. I just knew deep down that I would be an idiot not to.
Yeah no shit, I would have been an absolute waste of human if I had turned down an offer to be taken to a beach island by this beautiful woman that was willing to take care of my broken ass.
A lot can be assumed about the week at the beach I spent with Rachel. But only she and I will ever know the respect and experiences and emotions we shared with each other that week. Having been relatively unfamiliar with each other up until that point(with the exception of known shared interests) it was the best way that we could have ultimately or eventually become such a big part of each others lives. That week started what has brought us to where we are right now.
Over the following months we shared many powerful and emotional events that put us in a place to where we could help each other realize what our goals were. We continued to learn about each other. We have helped each other overcome challenges, and challenged each other. We have slipped up and we have helped each other up, we have changed and grown and developed focus on creating a life with each other with goals and with strong personalities.
Getting hit by a car one year ago brought me to where I (we) are right now, living together in our home in the mountains. It fast forwarded the relationship to be developed with Rachel but it also brought me a hefty settlement sum that in parts funded the move and a period of unemployment. It funded a motorcycle and a bitchin’ bike that I race on the track, home furnishings and settled debts I owed to collectors and the IRS. We celebrated our one year anniversary a little over a week ago, because we pretty much became a couple that first week end, but one year ago today was an unpredictable event that put a magnifying glass on what was to come.
I am thankful for the breake I was given (PUN INTENDED! Subtract one of the e’s) despite the pain. And I am thankful for the life Rachel and I have now.
