How Lucky We Are

It's been a strange few days.

I hardly ever get sick, but I'm going on my 2nd day of really bad headaches, caused by God-only-knows what, but if anyone suggests that I cut out dairy or gluten, I'm going to go drown myself in a pool of melted ice cream, because I don't want to live in world where I can't have cheese or pasta.

I also found out yesterday that my car is being recalled because of a manufacturer's defect that "may allow the vehicle to partially lose traction at high steering wheel angles, which could lead to a loss of control of the vehicle, increasing your risk of a crash." So much for go-kart handling.

In spite of these things, I'm actually not complaining, because on Saturday, I almost died. Long story short, I was walking down the Venice boardwalk with some friends, when a guy decided to careen his car down Ocean Front Walk at 55 mph, aiming to take out just about everything in his path. It all happened pretty fast, and I really just remember a hand pulling me to the side, and then a dozen people rushing behind me as we all tried to move out of the way of the speeding car. Eleven people were injured, and one woman was killed.    It was scary, and terrible, and sad, but honestly, I just kept thinking about how lucky we were. Experiences like that make me realize how insignificant little problems like headaches, and car trouble, and work deadlines can be. When you think you might die, nothing is really that bad. It kind of makes me want to stay up and do all of things I've been meaning to do, like writing letters to everyone who's ever been encouraging to me, or figuring out how to make a Crème brûlée, or to start running in the morning before work (just kidding, no part of me wants to do that).

I think my point can be summed up by a quote I heard recently by Joey Comeau that said something along the lines of, "Imagine how happy you could be, if you spent less time imagining how happy you could be."

On that note, I don't mean for this blog to be so heavy, and existential all the time, I swear! Usually it's about how I'm making a complete fool of myself, or the life-changing hot dog I ate.

So to lighten it up, here's a funny little music video by Meiko, called "How Lucky We Are". It kind of fits.