Gripe.

The movie where people are so dense, their garbage receptacle is their own home, did you ever view it?  

I cannot believe someone could be this dense unintentionally. I bet myself the driver just got 120 likes on his social media post and felt like he was a hotshot.  Could have easily been a dense woman, too.  All I know is dense person.

Remember the movie Hotshots?  Matt replayed it for us one night. It is good goofy humor.  

Well, just off the intersection of a major highway and a major road, I am driving in the most left hand driving lane.  We begin to slow down.  I think to myself, the car slowing me down must need to turn into this shopping strip, but there’s a car in the turning lane blocking the turn into the driveway.  I give the driver grace.  And then it stops (right beside the car in the turning lane.  The driver signaling and waiting in the turning lane for her turn to turn was my reflection.  She looked confused looking back and forth at the car stopped beside her in the driving lane and me stopped behind it with nowhere to go.  I am still angry about this, why I am still praying, so humankind intelligence does not go extinct.  If someone can think it up for a movie, it is possible, and I see evidence.  June 22, 2022) And I wait. And I waited. And I wait. This driver was taking advantage of my grace.  I did not honk.  No one was behind me.  I wasn’t given any choice but to see what all the waiting was for as cars whizzed by me in the most right hand driving lane.  There were plenty cues for the driver to realize, it was driving against standard. 

(June 19, 2022 I am still angry about this incident.  I thought why didn’t I think of parking my car, turning my hazards on, getting out of my car, walking up to its window and backhanding it to ask, “What’s going on in there?” Ie  its brain.  Then I gave myself grace and thought it didn’t occur to me to do that because I was too busy praying anyone to come up up behind me was present enough in their driving to be aware our driving lane far enough from traffic lights was stopped. I was too busy protecting myself in all my confusion to even think to turn my hazards on just to signal caution; I was distracted.  I had no choice in my position even to make a choice in my position, it was me who was positioned to take full responsibility of the consequence for its selfish choice.  If a distracted driver who didn’t know they were distracted was driving in our driving lane, my car was to absorb the entire impact.  Meanwhile, #it in front of me was cushioned in #its selfish decision because I was paying attention #thatsjustwrong  

This is when Matt would say, “I wish I had all the money in the world, I’d drive a big ass truck to push the car out of the way.” And I would say, “I know, right.”  

Dear God, please let our family win the megamillions lottery; I promise we will know how to handle it responsibly. Isn’t it funny how there are plenty enough people in the world with that kind of money, but there hasn’t been a news story about it?  What are people with all the money in the world spending their money on!  I'm just kidding.  That's just something Matt and I lighten up our patience with after we have practiced patience on the road.  Practicing patience on the road requires practice.  Patience is a choice.  I realize I have to be on my game to help Matt practice his patience on the road; his gasket operates more on caution than mine.  This is just my opinion, I think men have it harder in most ways. 

Lovingly, though, how no one came up behind me until it finally started getting its (bleep) out of the way.  *Thank you God

That numbskull driver lived to die another day.  

When I see it again, I’m going to do exactly what I should have done the first time and pray for myself and for my car while I stand at its window motioning it to roll it down so I can explain the scene to it. 😬

I have jabbed my pointer finger, “YOU!” at a tractor trailer driver staring at me like I was in its way driving 5mph over the already fast speed limit.  I violently wagged my finger “NO” and directed where it could go flying my thumbs-up back behind me.  Try it, they’ll respect you like you’re crazy. It worked for me; they backed off.  Yes, more than one.)

The degree to which this driver drove selfishly was infuriating.  I wished it good luck with its life.  We call unborn babies it, and I find it uncomfortably peculiar. I am going to start my own private trend of calling blatantly selfish people its; fits more comfortably. 

I did say a prayer if it was dealing with something that stressful in its life.  Still, there’s no excuse.  Be so present in your driving you are aware when you are driving distractedly.  I tell myself, "Emily Nicole, you are texting and driving.  That's making a poor decision putting your life and other lives on the road in danger" when I choose to text and drive.  I do not text and drive near as often, it took many discussions with myself and inconveniencing myself pulling into parking lots and into neighborhoods in front of someone's house that didn't look home to start quitting.  

My gripe is my time matters, too, especially when I am waiting in a driving lane for someone in front of me to turn.

The whole turning a driving lane into a Chick-a-fil-a drive through is a terrible occurrence, too, in my opinion.

(June 29, 2022 I have been over my anger from this incident for a handful of days now.  I hope someone got its Starbucks’ and McDonald’s order wrong by now.)

 (July 7, 2022 I got dejavu. The good thing in this incident is for one driver unaware, there were 3 attentive drivers.)

I was driving 5-10 mph over the speed limit home, and I was on the last leg of a stretch of two lane highway.  A lady in a truck with two children was driving too close behind me.  I thought this woman is modeling a bad behavior to her children.  I pointed to her in my rear view mirror saying, “I see you.”  She was offended at my gesture.  As she passed me in the passing lane that finally came upon us, she slowed to see me in the driver’s seat.  I waved goodbye to her and her daughter in the passenger seat.  She sped away.  Not too far ahead, though.  She got just far enough for me to see I had been a good influence on her and her children.  To the drivers on the highway she had gotten caught behind after getting caught behind me, she and her children rolled the windows down to wave goodbye to the highway as they turned into their neighborhood.  A wave is a much more pleasant sight than a finger.