Driving while you are upset..

Just don't do it!!!!

Today's lesson for today is brought to you by a little Asian woman in a green Honda, Civic.  Mrs. Wu has been been rather distraught,  in regards to her husband's fender bender from earlier this week.  Mr.  Wu was coming home from driving his daughter to school on Monday.  It was a clear sunny day and he was jamming to his Vietnamese oldies while stopping at a red light.  All of the sudden, he was rear ended by the car behind him.  Calmly, he turned off his radio and got out of the car to inspect the damage.  Unfortunately for him, the offender could not produce a driver's license and car insurance, but still he felt bad for the driver and decided not to call the police.  Later that night, Mr. Wu went home to inform his wife of the fender bender.   Mrs. Wu was rather upset that he did not call the authorities and proceeded to 'light-into' her husband, to which his response was, "Well what do you want me to do?  I could not let him go to jail!"

Okay, let us go back to the original story of  Mrs. Wu.  She was driving this morning to go to work.  At that moment, all that she could think of was about her husband's fender bender.  She has a bad habit of not paying attention when driving upset.  Somehow,  Mrs. Wu was driving too close to one of the cars parked on the street, and so she accidentally swiped its rear with the side of her car.  She drove off in horror praying to God (literally) that no one had seen her and went back home.

Well, there are a couple of lessons about this story:
First, there is a very good reason for someone to not have a driver's license and insurance.   Either that person did not pay to keep their insurance, or more likely, he or she had such a bad driving history that they could not afford to keep insurance.  You are now taking chances if you believe that other person will pay as he or she claims.  Chances are good that you will not be able to get them to pay for your repairs.  If you do choose to let them pay out of pocket, make a demand on the spot to see if they are really good on their intentions.  At this point you have nothing to lose, so get them to sign an IOU and get it notarized.  Sounds formal?  Well, it is a legal document that you can take to small claims to help you recoup your repairs.  Make sure that you have pictures and written statements of everything.  You are now your own claims representative.

Second, you are more likely to get into a fender bender when you are upset.  Realize that you  are stressed out, and do whatever you need to do to unwind.  Here are my all time favorite ways to de-stress.

1.  Drink (coffee, tea, soda....____)  Use your imagination and fill in the blanks.
2.  Eat (chocolate, ice cream, what is your comfort food?)
3.  Read a book or watch a movie.
4.  Work on your car, or any other projects around the house.
5.  Spend some quality time with your significant other (hint..hint.)
6.  Blog about it