There are times when we all let life get to us. Personally, I get overwhelmed with stress and start getting impatient with people, my politically correct filters start to drop and I am generally irritated by the slightest things. I also get a bit more aggressive than usual when people are (what I deem to be) inconsiderate. I don't realize it's happening until I do or say something that gets me in trouble.
I realized last week that the stresses of the past couple of months (work, life etc) and the "joy of the season" had pushed me over that edge. It was a sunny Weds morning and since I didn't sleep well, I found myself heading south on 95 for a weekly management meeting in Virginia a little earlier than usual. Let me pause here to acknowledge that I am a bit of an aggressive driver - not obnoxious, but aggressive. A couple years of racing cars will do that to a girl.
Anyway, everything is rolling smoothly until we get right around the ICC construction zone - somewhere near Laurel. Now, I know that traffic always slows in that area. I have no idea why, there are no lane closures and aside from speed cameras, I can't figure it out. Speed cameras shouldn't STOP traffic, they should simply slow it down a tick.
So, I find myself behind a gray Chevy Impala in the left lane going UNDER the speed limit. He's pacing the car in the next lane so I'm boxed in and not very happy about it. I tend to show my unhappiness by borderline tailgating. He finally gets far enough ahead of the other car for me to slide through. Admittedly, I did come a little extra close on purpose to show my displeasure. I intended to pass him and get back in the left lane but now he was pacing me. He pulls up next to me and I look over and clearly ask "WHY?" through the window. It's a small blessing that I've grown out of flipping people off. I drop my car into manual shift and hit the gas to do a clean pass and switch back to the left lane. Looking in my rearview, half expecting this J-O to come up to tailgate me, my heart drops as I see him flip on his lights. EFF. I laughed to myself thinking - well, it was bound to happen.
Having pulled to the shoulder, I watch him get out of his car and literally do the cocky-cop strut to my car. As I rolled down the window the first words out of his mouth were "In answer to your question "Why"; because there are speed cameras in this area and if I get caught speeding, I have to pay the ticket. You sped up to 85mph to pass me and tailgated me to get through (I think he was being generous, I know I was going faster than that at one point). I started to argue with "I only sped up because you were pacing me ..." and then couched it with "but I understand what you're saying". By now I realized that this guy wasn't a traffic-type cop - probably a detective or something judging by his car. He hadn't asked for license or registration. I wasn't getting a ticket but I wasn't pushing my luck. I apologized for my transgressions and he mumbled a "slow it down" as he walked away.
I pull back into traffic, which was coming to a stop directly ahead. I saw in my rearview that as the cop pulled back in, someone nearly hit him and slammed on the horn. Cop pulls off to the side, lets the guy go ahead and proceeds to hit his lights to pull the guy over. This cop was having a tough morning !
I laughed at a rare stroke of good-luck and then laughed at myself for letting things get to me enough to push my normally aggressive but acceptable driving to a level slightly below obnoxious.
Message definitely received.
4 comments:
Actually, it sounds like your driving is just plain stupid. Aggressive? What's the point? is your time so valuable that you have to pull jackass NASCAR moves on the beltway or 95 south?
Because you've raced cars - does not make you an expert driver. Instead you may want to rethink how you drive and if you let stress get to you so much that you push your luck by pulling even dumber moves than you normally do ... maybe a therapist.
I'd hate to see your stress level if your expert driving left someone injured, impaired or dead.
dude, she's a woman driver that said she was too aggressive and realized it wasn't cool. that's better than most. i bet you're one of those assholes driving slow in the fast lane that force everyone to drive around you so you can prove whatever your point is here. get a life. or a therapist.
You're trying to teach someone to drive better by driving poorly. The anon's here are outraged by this and then go about trying to teach you how you should act by acting poorly.
It makes me want to laugh, feel superior, and then anonymously flail someone. But alas...I'm too filled with empathy.
Happy Holidays, lets all go ride our bikes.
Terrible, you are, as always, spot-on ! The difference is that I publicly admitted the error of my ways - the Anons seem to have missed the point of the whole post!
Happy Holidays to you and yours ... stay warm and safe!
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