Penny Stock

Driving Miss Crazy

If there is one thing I can not stand it is when people blatantly demonstrate the quality of self-righteous indignation. It is even worse when they do it while in a driving situation. Unfortunately I live in Pikesville, MD, a.k.a. "the bad driving old person capital of the eastern seaboard", a.k.a. "the self-righteous indignation while driving capital of the eastern seaboard."

Let me give you an example. Today, I was at the gas station. I pulled in and there was a car in front of me getting gas, so I drove in behind that car and started to fill my tank. In case you haven't been living on the same planet as me I will remind you that they make gas stations user friendly; meaning, that if a one car is getting gas, another car can pull in and get gas at the pump directly behind it. Right? Well, I started to fill up and the car that had been in front of me finished and drove away. I continued to fill up. A women pulled behind me and was waiting for my pump. I kept filling. As I was filling up, I heard her start to sigh loudly and look at the empty pump in front of me. I could tell she was getting angrier and angrier that I had "been so unsympathetic and didn't pull into the pump in front of me; thereby, making her waste her precious little time until I finished and she could pull in." Finally, she heaved one loud annoyed gasp and backed up to pull into another pump. The stupid thing is that if she had been at the station 30 seconds before she would have seen that there had been a car in front of me so I wasn't wrong. ARGH.

That was bad, but the worst is when I am driving and trying to make a left turn crossing over 2 lanes of on-coming traffic. There is always some "do-good" driver in the oncoming traffic lane closest to me who stops and motions for me to proceed with my left turn. Problem is that he doesn't pay attention to the fact that the people in the far lane of on-coming traffic are still going 35-40 MPH and if I would turn I would get hit by them. So, here I am waiting until it is safe to turn and this guy is yelling at me to turn and obviously thinking he is being so nice. He finally figures me to be an ingrate who doesn't know how to take a favor and gives me an "I tried but you are an idiot" look and continues to go. This seriously happens to me all the time.

Now, I am not claiming to be the world's best driver. But, at least I know how to put things into perspective and not make a total fool out of myself on a daily basis...Maybe only on a weekly basis...

Posted by peninah at November 4, 2003 07:43 PM