Thursday, June 09, 2005

Jen

Three things I witnessed today:

1) First off, imagine anger. Image so much anger that you are willing to risk your life and other's lives because you hate your life (maybe) and are too impatient to wait for the person in front of you to turn. Now, to my story. On my way from Subway (dying to eat my 6 inch veggie sub), I was waiting to make a right hand turn out of the parking lot but had to wait for traffic to pass. At the light nearby, two cars are in the left hand turn lane; a giant silver SUV and a tiny crappy foreign car. Anyway, I finally get my opportunity to turn out of the lot and continue straight down the street I am on, when big silver SUV turns out of the turn lane into opposing traffic while I am headed directly towards that area. The woman, the angry, angry woman, nearly clips my backside (I had to swerve out of the way so she wouldn't hit me head on) as she drives around the crappy old foreign car to make a left hand turn.

2) I next went to the bank where I see a woman escorted out with handcuffs. After I made a deposit, I return back to my car only to see her facing a wall while a bunch of cops with blue rubber gloves search her vehicle. Actually, this was pretty awesome.

3) On my way back to work after my errands are finished I am waiting behind a car at a stop light. She (I really hate the fact that all my stories are about women) is continually inching into the intersection even though there are an amazing 6! lanes of traffic in motion. Finally, even though we STILL have a red light, she drives partially into the intersection to aid her in making a 3-point turn so she can go back down the street she came. Mind you, she had to go into oncoming traffic to pull this off and do it while we still had a red light. I nearly shat in my pants.

4 Comments:

Blogger David said...

Traffic scary stories are the best, aren't they? I have two modest examples:

1. About 25 years ago I worked for the gas company in Gary, Indiana, sometimes having the less-than-enviable job of shutting off people's gas for non-payment. I remember seeing one man cut off another at a stop sign. The man who got cut off pulled a gun and yelled something along the lines of, "I oughta put a new hole in yo ass!" The other man also pulled a piece and yelled, "What...you think you the only nigga in Gary who gotsa pistol?" They both waved their weapons in the air momentarily and then got back in their cars and drove away.

2. A couple weeks ago, I was filling up at the local gas station. Just as I'm starting to pump gas into my van, I heard a couple guys shouting at each other. At first I thought it was the type of good-natured banter that old friends sometimes get into. Then I realize it's a couple guys cussing at each other over their mutual bad driving. For some reason, the incident cracked me up.

What amazes me, I guess, is how people can risk their lives by becoming enraged over bad driving. There are so many more important things in America to become enraged over...like the way the current Bush has caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands (but I digress). Lately, if I'm involved in any type of traffic problem, I'll either wave and smile or shout something like, "Jesus loves you." I don't care all that much about Jesus, I just figure if someone's close to the edge, I'm gonna give them as little reason as possible to want me dead.

OK...one more funny traffic story from my distant past: Flashback to Chicago, 1972. I'm walking out the front door of the Italian restaurant where I work as a busboy. It's two in the morning. The streets are all but deserted. Just as the bartender and I step out the door of that corner building, there's a huge CRASH! One car has run the stop sign in front of the building and crashed into a car speeding down the through-street there. Then, both drivers restart their cars and continue driving in opposite directions. The bartender and I guessed they were both too drunk to stop and call the police. We laughed and laughed.

Well...I guess I've rambled enough. But ask me some time about the gunfight I once watched. Or the free-for-all in a Sambo's Restaurant. (Hi to Matt.)

1:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That Jesus thing reminds me of this guy who got stuck turning left from Michigan Ave onto Cloverfield (Jen, you'll know what I'm talking about) and was blocking traffic. Honking ensued. Instead of honking back or getting flustered, he just blew a kiss to his fellow motorist.

12:31 AM  
Blogger Jen said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:00 PM  
Blogger Jen said...

Dan - Michigan and Cloverfield is exactly where incident #3 happened. No kiss blowing happened, which maybe would have made me think she had more than half of a brain.

Mr.D - Your traffic stories are pretty amusing. I've seen a lot of crazy stuff in Chicago, especially when I was going to UIC, right near the projects that they are now tearing down to bulid overly expensive new condos and townhomes. I was on Taylor and Little at a stop sign when the project exploded with people which then surrounded my Honda. There was a lot of shaking and punching of my already crappy, beat up car (a couple weeks earlier, someone walked on the roof - it looked like someone dropped a boulder on it) but luckily, they left me alone.

4:01 PM  

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