Life is WEIRD

It has been repeatedly brought home to me how odd my life is. I am a product of an extraordinary home (loving, monogamous, still together mother and father, 4 brothers and sisters), I have unusual intelligence (at least in Oklahoma I do), and, overall, I appreciate the weirdness of life, contributing to it on occasion (dancing to no music, anyone?). 
Today,  life took an odd turn. I started early on my journey to New Orleans. The first eleven hours of the trip (it was going to take thirteen with stops) were peaceful, surreal. I've never driven alone for such an extended period of time. It was weightless, freeing, kinda scary. Then, disaster. I finished one of my Book on CD CDs. Took it out, put it away, considered putting in more. Looked up, saw brakelights, realized "Oh, they're stopped". 
Tried to brake, realized I wasn't going to stop in time, and steered (not swerved) to the right, the space between the lanes. There was an impact, I heard it but didn't feel it. A slight grinding as I passed the car I had hit glancingly, and I stopped beside this green car with four black men in it. 
Honestly, I thought I had hit them, too. I was kind of surprised to be in one piece. I panted in my car for thirty seconds, and then they moved over to the side, I followed. Turns out they were undamaged, they asked me if I was alright and left. 
Irony number one of the day. The dude I sideswiped? Was stopped because of a wreck. Irony number two happened twenty minutes later when our accident caused another rear-ending. The cop lady on the scene looked a little stressed out.
Summation: All people in all cars are fine, physically. The dude's car was none the worse for wear. The car I was driving? It's not driving anymore. Don't know why, exactly, the most damage is on the driver's side door area, it wouldn't shut properly. 
Irony number four (it will never stop): my heart rate about twenty minutes after the wreck was sixty beats a minute, that is my resting (read: sleeping) rate. 
Yes, I got a ticket. 
Louisianians? Great, friendly people. You can tell from how they act after an accident. The cop lady helped with my bags and took me to the bus station. The catch? I had to ride in the back. She told me like she was expecting resistance or something. I was okay with it, you can't be too cautious, and I know I'm not a criminal. 
So I was extremely lucky after this, got a ticket to New Orleans about fifteen minutes before the bus was going to leave. Got on by being ignorant of proper procedure but assertive. 
So...at least two firsts in one evening. I rode in a cop car, and I took a Greyhound bus. Oh, and drove alone for eleven hours, got special attention at a restaurant by a dude, checked into a hotel by myself, and am now in New Orleans for ten days, again, alone.

The ending irony of the day? The toilet has a strange flushing mechanism. I thought I had left that behind in Vienna. Sigh.

Sleep is good now.
Greeny, the wreck-inclined one. (I think I'll buy ugly cars in the future)

New Orleans

Life is good. Odd to say that so soon after yesterday, but I had a good day. 
I am in a very nice hotel (my dad rocks), they have a nice little cafe downstairs that I had breakfast at. Then the hotel was nice enough to shuttle me over to my first Suzuki class. Lo and behold, during a break, the insurance people called. They inquired about whether I had gotten a rental car yet (nope, being twenty complicates this). They said they would call dad about it, since he is in charge of this stuff. A couple of hours later, Enterprise called (the rental agency, not the Star Fleet vessel) and said they had a reservation for me. They came, picked me up (that is pretty cool), and I now have a rental to drive. This is another first. I hope to God (and I am being careful to the point of paranoia) that I don't crash it. 
Somewhat ironically, Dad called several hours later, and told me all of this again. 
I had a good time at the class. It's called Every Child Can! (tm), and the teacher, Ron Stieg, was a fairly random yet entertaining guy. He has been a teacher for 28 years, and is one of the most idealistic guys I have ever met. Apparently he taught my teacher. I am not sure that we could be teacher/student without me hating him eventually, but he had some good advice. 
Tomorrow we begin another class that will last until next Sunday. Suzuki Violin book 1. I feel sarcastic about it right now, so I'll just skip over it for now. 
It feels like a sauna outside. You can feel the heat and moisture wrapping all around you. The heat index is 105 today. And it's going to stay that hot for a little while. I don't mind it, actually. I think I adjusted to the weather in Vienna. At least we have good airconditioning here.
I am thinking about where to go to dinner. Have to look around on the internet and in the brochures that the hotel has so thoughtfully provided. 

One day down, nine to go.
Greeny