Florida, car accidents & eye problems...oh my!

July Fourth weekend my husband and I went to Florida to see my family and go to a wedding. The wedding took place in St. Augustine, so I was really excited to show my husband around this historical Spanish city. We visited the fort, Castillo de San Marcos, and strolled along the old cobble stone streets browsing little shops.

Unfortunately, it was super hot and I was sweating like a roasted pig. We had to go directly to the wedding at 6pm and we didn't have a hotel room there, so we had to change into our wedding attire in the public bathroom. Everytime I tried to apply makeup to my face it slid off. I was literally covered in an inch of sweat. BLECH! Anyways, I somehow managed to put myself together and we were off to the wedding. The wedding was in the Lightner Museum courtyard and took place on top of a stone bridge. Very romantic!
Congratulations Leigh Ann and Tim!

The reception took place at the local winery. I was crestfallen to find out "winery" doesn't necessarily translate into "lush, open countryside a la French provence with thousands of grapes hanging off of curling vines". It was just a building with what would have been a nice waterway view if it weren't for the construction going on to build new condos. Nevertheless it was a cool idea and all the guests got a tour of the winery and a wine tasting session. I was a bit tipsy after that and we hadn't even gotten to the real reception yet! (Leigh Ann, kudos for THE best wedding cake EVER! YUM, YUM!!!)

After the wedding we drove back to Jax (Jacksonville) and changed our clothes, so we could go clubbing with friends. My friend and her husband picked us up a little after midnight and we were off. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who were "off" that night . The light we were at had just turned green and we were moving forward when all of the sudden we were slammed from behind. Fortunately, except for a brutal head banging whiplash, we seemed to be alright and got out of the SUV. That's when I saw a pickup truck speed by. Turns out that truck had slammed into a car and that car had slammed into us. The asshole immediately fled the scene. Lucky for us some witnesses in nearby cars took off after the truck. A few seconds later a police car followed. Suprisingly enough, the SUV had little visual damage. We thought it would be much worse because it felt much worse. Unfortunately, the other car was not so lucky. It's entire rear end was gone! It had been smashed into oblivion. The male driver and the female passenger were luckily up and about. The woman had a huge bruise on her arm, but looked otherwise unharmed. The man was complaining of leg pains and was taken to the hospital. That night my husband, two friends, and I had sore necks and upper backs. The next day we were ok. The asshole who hit us got caught. He was drunk and is facing felony charges, among other ones, for fleeing the scene of an accident where he caused an injury. It was really weird to never see what this guy looked like. He caused such a horrible incident in our lives and could have even killed us and we don't know what he looks like. We asked the cop who came to take our statements if they could bring that guy over so we could pummel him, but no such luck. All in all, we were REALLY lucky and thank God we all had our seatbelts on.

Well, this past Sunday I may have been afflicted with some aftermath from the accident. I woke up early in the morning and noticed a flashing dot in my left eye. It's like when someone takes your picture with a flash. I immediately freaked out because I knew this could be a sign of a retinal tear or detachment. I'm a prime candidate for such a thing because I am severely nearsighted. Since it was Sunday, my optometrist was not working and neither were any other optometrists. I finally ended up going to the ER at Wills Eye Hospital, where I spent SEVEN HOURS...some of that time being prodded and blinded by a bright light and most of the time just sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

I couldn't believe how many friggin people there were in the ER!!! I figured it wouldn't be that bad because it was just for eye problems. Well, I was wrong!!!! It absolutely sucked, but fortunately, I found out I did not have a retinal tear or detachment; however, a blood vessel in my eye had popped and had leaked blood into my retina, thus, causing my problem. OH, and my contact lens had apparently scratched my cornea in the same eye.....thus, I'm sporting the dork of the year look with my rickety eyeglasses for at least two weeks. Anyways, the blood vessel thing may have happened for no reason or it could have been caused by the trauma of the accident when I hit my head. Either way I'm probably screwed with some huge ER fee since Florida is a No Fault state. F'ers!