Thanks

Thanks for all your support, everyone! I am so lucky to have friends like you! One comment that particularly made me laugh because it was so clever came courtesy of my lil' bro:

Anyways, remember, Fiona was originally an OGRE!! Looks like she changed back from a pricess to an Ogre for about the next month.

Thanks for the chuckle!

The latest news is that the Geico adjuster called me this evening to let me know he would be looking at my car tomorrow and would call me with his verdict. As for my physical health, I seem to be fine. The only soreness is in my left shoulder where the seatbelt hit, but it's not even bruised, so I definitely was very fortunate.

Driving the minivan is kinda cool. It's interesting how what you drive can make you feel different. I'm the same person as always, of course, but I feel like people probably assume I'm a mom based on the type of car I'm driving. We all make assumptions based on things like that. There was an interesting 20/20 covering this topic last Friday, about how stereotyping is wired into our brain as a survival mechanism. We size people up--friend or foe--to determine how we should react to their presence. So a guy in a Porsche, probably cocky and definitely rich. A young lady in a VW bug, probably funloving and sweet. A kid practically laying down in a lowered and tricked out Civic hatchback, probably a gang banger wannabe. A guy driving an SUV, most likely a dad. A guy in a suit and driving a BMW or Mercedes, a successful businessman. And I'm sure that not all businessmen actually want to drive BMW's, but they feel like they need to live up to the image of a businessman, and businessmen just don't drive VW bugs. So people perpetuate the stereotype by participating in it, as well as assuming that others participate as well and thus are judgable based on stereotypes.

I'm sure many grad students have done dissertations on the topic of identity and cars, so my little ramblings are superficial. It was just a thought I was having this afternoon while driving home in the pouring rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and 75, perfect fall weather. Yippee!