This has not been a good day. Craig worked most of the night and came to bed at 5. I was up 90 minutes later and in the shower, but when it came time to leave for school, the kids dawdled and we ended up not getting on the road until 7 minutes past our normal time. That 7 minutes is important because there are so many frigging schools around here. By leaving that much later, I got caught up in the school traffic, so my normal 5-7 minute trip to school took twice as long. Worse, on the ride home, I ended up getting caught in the traffic of everyone arriving at the high school, too. I avoid that when I leave earlier.

What did that mean today? That meant I got rear-ended.

I had gone past the front of the school, approaching the corner where I turn to go down the side (with yet another entrance for people to pull into) and into my neighborhood. The SUV in front of me started making the turn, then stopped because a kid was crossing the street. I stopped, with plenty of room and time, but the woman behind me didn't, and rammed into my backside. I couldn't pull over right away. Traffic is way too heavy for that. In fact, by the time I could pull over, I was half a block from my house so I just pulled into the driveway instead. She followed me, and we got out to inspect our cars. My van was fine, due to Craig's laziness on Sunday when he got back from sailing. He'd failed to take off the tow hitch like he usually does, and that was what the woman ended up hitting. Pieces of her car were stuck to it, and there were some scratches on my bumper, but that was it. She, in her sedan, had it worse, but I was more worried about the two-year-old she had strapped into the backseat. Thankfully, they were both fine, we agreed to part ways, and she left.

I was a tad shaken. Still am, actually. I didn't sleep great, and the headache I had from arguing with the kids only got worse after the accident. I'm trying to regroup. I think it's going to be a very long day.