Is it ironic?

Does anyone else think it is a little bit ironic that a lawyer (uh, me) should be laid up with whiplash because she was rear-ended by an uninsured driver while sitting in stopped traffic IN FRONT OF THE COURTHOUSE??

I mean, a rear end collision and whiplash and a lawyer....could there be three more stereo-typical elements to a story??? I am SOOOO unimaginative with my misadventures.

So, this afternoon, I was innocently having a fine lunch of arayis halabi at a little Lebanese place by the courthouse with my Girlfriend S~. It was freezing outside, so, after we ate, I asked S~ to give me a ride back to my building, as she had driven to restaurant and I had walked, and she had managed to score a primo parking spot directly in front of the restaurant. (Practically unheard of good fortune.)

As we drove by the courthouse, the car in front of us stopped to let a passenger out - this happens all the time as there is very little convenient parking by the courthouse. Anyway, the point is we were coming to a stop because the car in front of us was stopped.

I don't remember what happened next. S~ says I was leaning forward and looking down into my purse when the car behind us smashed into us. I think I hit my head on the dash, although I don't know. (And I shouldn't have hit my head on the dash, because I was buckled in.)

The next thing I remember was asking S~ what happened. She said, "call 911 and tell them we were hit and that you hit your head."

So, I called 911 and told them we had been hit from behind, that it was not a bad accident but I had hit my head. And the 911-lady said someone would be there in a minute. In the meantime, the guy who hit us DROVE AWAY.

S~, who was clearly thinking more clearly than I was, started saying the guy's license plate over and over. And I remembered that I had the cell number for a divorce client who is also a sergeant in the sheriff's department in my cell phone memory.

I called my client, who was on duty, and I told him I was in front of the courthouse and that I had been rear-ended and that I hit my head and would he write this number down before I forgot it. And I gave him the license number that S~ was repeating.

So, my client says, "are you okay?" and I said, "my head hurts" and I think I hung up the phone.

And two minutes later, there were two fire trucks, a police car, an ambulance and a sheriff's deputy around our car, and they strapped me to a board and put me in the ambulance because I was "confused and complaining of head and neck pain." (And I also I told them I was 2 years younger than I actually am, and I wasn't intending to lie about my age.)

Five minutes later the sheriff's department picked up the guy who had left the scene of the accident. (To which I say, if you save a sheriff's department sergeant's pension from their ex-wife, you can, at a minimum, anticipate that they will come through for you if you are rear-ended in their jurisdiction.)

So, I spent six hours at the hospital, being x-rayed and CT scanned and, except for some confusion and nausea and aches and pains, I guess I am going to be okay. Mild concussion and whiplash...I have strict instructions to stay in bed for 2 days.

So, I'm typing on my back...which is quite a talent...

LM