So today I got hit by a car in the morning on my way to get a chocolate croissant at Mission Beach Cafe.  I was waiting at the corner to cross, when I heard that eerily familiar sound of screeching car wheels skidding.  Just like in the movies, the pause between that and the impact to the other car, seemed like a long, drawn out moment; but then it hit and suddenly my legs were being pulled under a black bumper and my phone popped up in the air.  If you’ve seen Vincent Laforet’s 600fps Famous Footwear “Neighborhood” commercial, then you can imagine the speed at which I saw that front end while  I was realizing that I was getting run over by a car.

Then Maya’s Volvo stops… crashing into the electrical (phone?) pole at the corner and I fly forwards.  I actually sorta glide off the hood from the instant stop of the car, (but not of me) and land on my ass/back on the ground.  Slightly stunned, I somehow had caught my phone at the same time it hit the ground (not sure how) and it only suffered a slight chip.  My shoe, however was thrashed, and I wasn’t sure what the white part of me that was showing through was – I was pretty sure not bone though – sweet!

People seemed to appear out of a lot of places quite quickly, including one of those neighborhood folks you see walking down your street and recognize but don’t actually know.  Two folks from Box Dog Bikes came over and offered help and were super friendly.  Then I look back up at the sky and Maya shouts something like “OMG Gene, it’s you”  and I am thinking that it’s nice to see her.

The Box Dog Bikes folks slide me over toward the other edge of the corner where the funky ooze coming out of the Volvo is creeping from.  And I got a mug of water that I only took one sip from even though I wanted to chug it. The cops and EMT were quick to arrive and as they did, I noticed my phone had a text message from my business partner Jack saying he was two minutes away.  I texted him back that I was the source of the commotion he was coming towards and we chatted a little as I went into the ambulance. (photo above taken by Jack)

I tried to take a few phone pix from inside the ambulance but I couldn’t get a really good angle of what I wanted to shoot but oh well (photo above from three days later – still some sand on the ground).  At the hospital I was seen pretty quickly and it was nice how everyone introduced themselves to you.  I had trouble remembering everyone’s names although I could easily cheat and look at their badges.  The first girl was cute – she was interning from Duke.  Then they strip you naked to run tests and I’m like damn this isn’t a great way to make a positive impression on a girl.  So I tried not to worry about that since I had on clean underwear.

I was also thinking that the now shredded shoe totally makes my previous weeks hesitation over getting rid of that pair a moot point.  One less thing to worry about.  After the x-rays were taken I sat and finally got someone to give me my phone from my jeans which were somewhere I couldn’t reach/see.  There’s no signal but there is WiFi so that was nice.  The x-rays came out and I took a shot of them that I posted to instagr.am.  “You have bony feet” was one of the comments.

Eventually I got my meds and was dispatched.  All in all a very efficient trip to the ER and I ran into the same EMTs who took me in when I was leaving.  They had made three other trips during my stay…