1. I was driving on the MassPike, and my lane was ending. I admittedly squeezed over with little warning, but the car behind me was pretty far back there - and I had plenty of room/time to safely join his lane. He honked, and I waved, apologetically. But, no harm done. However, he was unhappy. He drove up very close to my bumper. Then he pulled to my left lane and got very close to me. Then he pulled in front of me and kept slowing and speeding up. Then we came to the toll. He went through one station, to my left, I went through another. He finished first. And waited... By the time I pulled out he swerved into my lane, then back to his, then back to mine, then back to his, all the while chucking me the bird. After this, he sped off - flashing his NY license plates in my face. * Just up the road a cop who had seen this display pulled him over for reckless driving and gave him a pretty hefty ticket.
2. I was at a movie theater with some friends, the theater was packed as it was a free premier, and it was close to the time the movie would start. I had to use the restroom so I quickly got up to find it. There was no one in either of the two stalls when I went in. I used the last little scrap of toilet paper while I was in there. When I came out, someone was just about to come out of the other stall and two women were waiting. I said to the woman who was first "There is no toilet paper left in this stall so you might want to grab some from the other stall first" She looked at me, didn't say thank you, and when the other stall was free rushed in. She, however, did not grab some toilet paper, she shut the door and used the stall - not even allowing the other woman waiting in line to grab some paper. * On her way out of the bathroom she stepped in a suspicious puddle that cemented a long trail of toilet paper to the bottom of her shoe that everyone laughed and pointed at for the remainder of the evening.
3. I was at the grocery store and I watched in horror as this one man, with a cart load of groceries barreled his way through a crowd of people. We were all milling about trying to determine which lane to use, because one of the self-checkout lanes was not working, and one of the other lanes seemed like it WOULD work, but the light was off, so we were basically trying to make a group decision as to what to do. There were 3 or 4 of us, and only a handful of items each. This man with his cart stormed right through us and up to the self-checkout lane in question. The rest of us then went off in search of other lanes. * After struggling through the self-checkout lane that wouldn't work properly, this man's grocery bag ripped and his grapes went all over the parking lot.
*the endings may or may not be true, but I have to believe that karma will come around and bite these people sooner or later!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
approaching exit five
I went to high school in Providence, RI - about an hour from the town I grew up in. In general, I consider myself fortunate to have been able to go to that school; it was a wonderful school and a really great place for me to be. On top of the financial burden of sending me to school there, my parents also willingly supported the distance burdens that we picked up. I had to get to school after all. And someone had to get me there. Most of the time it was my mom, she got up early in the morning and drove me a whopping 25 minutes up I-95 to East Greenwich (exit 8), where I caught the bus. Then she turned immediately around to drive all the way back to go to work (exit 2). She'd work a full day, and leave to drive back up to East Greenwich to pick me up (exit 8), and we'd drive home (exit 1) together. When I think back to those times, now that I have a full time job, I hate myself for the times I stood there silently cursing her for making me wait a few minutes at the bus stop for her to arrive. I feel so ungrateful. Besides the time commitment, and the frequent gas station stops, I must add that she made all four of these daily trips basically alone.
My morning schedule went something like:
wake up, eat, brush teeth, get dressed, grab bag, pile into car.
This generally took a total of 25 minutes, and is interspersed with my dad gently telling my mom and I that we'd better hurry because we were late, as the two of us ran around looking for keys, or sneakers, or a notebook, or homework that was misplaced from the night before. Once I was piled into the car, I went to sleep. Seriously. Sometimes before we were out of the driveway. Most times before we were off our street.
It was a similar thing in the afternoons, I would get off the bus and hop in the car. Zzzzzzz. Seriously. Sometimes without saying Hi probably. What can I say, I was sleepy?!
My poor mother. But, I while I was awake I really enjoyed these times riding with her. We had fun. I remember one morning when we were listening to the radio and Tubthumping by Chumbawumba came on the radio. It was nothing special, but I remember it so clearly - we were just passing the Bess Eaton on Rte 3 and we both laughed about how ridiculous the name of the song, the name of the group, and the lyrics were (and then I likely went to sleep). I remember listening to Jones and Joan on 93.3, and tying to predict whether we'd miss the bus. I remember the crazy Wednesday afternoons where she probably wished I slept and I most definitely did not - choreographing complete dances while still buckled up (read, LOTS of hand motions!) And I remember approaching exit five.
My mom blogged about this today. In case you didn't click that link and read it, she said, about me, "She has grown into a wonderfully talented woman. But, for just a brief moment today she was that child in school, traveling with me up the highway." The fact that I grew into a wonderfully talented woman is not really a huge surprise to me - I have two wonderfully talented, generous, kind, supportive parents as role models. A bit of that was bound to rub off. But, I remember the days of riding with her to school as some of the happiest times I can think of.
Hey Mom, wanna drive me to work in the morning?? I've been especially tired lately, and could use the nap! hehehe. love you!
My morning schedule went something like:
wake up, eat, brush teeth, get dressed, grab bag, pile into car.
This generally took a total of 25 minutes, and is interspersed with my dad gently telling my mom and I that we'd better hurry because we were late, as the two of us ran around looking for keys, or sneakers, or a notebook, or homework that was misplaced from the night before. Once I was piled into the car, I went to sleep. Seriously. Sometimes before we were out of the driveway. Most times before we were off our street.
It was a similar thing in the afternoons, I would get off the bus and hop in the car. Zzzzzzz. Seriously. Sometimes without saying Hi probably. What can I say, I was sleepy?!
My poor mother. But, I while I was awake I really enjoyed these times riding with her. We had fun. I remember one morning when we were listening to the radio and Tubthumping by Chumbawumba came on the radio. It was nothing special, but I remember it so clearly - we were just passing the Bess Eaton on Rte 3 and we both laughed about how ridiculous the name of the song, the name of the group, and the lyrics were (and then I likely went to sleep). I remember listening to Jones and Joan on 93.3, and tying to predict whether we'd miss the bus. I remember the crazy Wednesday afternoons where she probably wished I slept and I most definitely did not - choreographing complete dances while still buckled up (read, LOTS of hand motions!) And I remember approaching exit five.
My mom blogged about this today. In case you didn't click that link and read it, she said, about me, "She has grown into a wonderfully talented woman. But, for just a brief moment today she was that child in school, traveling with me up the highway." The fact that I grew into a wonderfully talented woman is not really a huge surprise to me - I have two wonderfully talented, generous, kind, supportive parents as role models. A bit of that was bound to rub off. But, I remember the days of riding with her to school as some of the happiest times I can think of.
Hey Mom, wanna drive me to work in the morning?? I've been especially tired lately, and could use the nap! hehehe. love you!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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