This last weekend I went up to Madison to see my older sister perform in a play. She was fantastic--very funny, great accent, very quirky character. She commanded the stage.
The kids stayed home with my husband and I had a restful and fun weekend with my parents, my acting sister D., her husband D., my other sister S., and her husband T. We had adult conversations, ideas that flowed from one another and continued on to new ideas, times of quiet--you know, not-kids-times. I love my kids, but it was nice to have a break from the demanding nature of interested, active, energetic eating machines. You know a break, if you can get it, is nice every once in a while. Once a year is OK.
After the interesting weekend with my family, it was time to come home to my family.
I was driving along fine, going about 75 mph which put me right in the flow of traffic. Yes, I was going faster than the speed limit, but I was going with the flow. Except that this giant white Excursion came up on me in the center lane, of three lanes, and couldn't really go around--he couldn't find an opening. Instead, he tailgated me coming to within 2 feet of my bumpersticker filled bumper and just rode on my tail for a good long way. I didn't like it. I was shaking my head and telling him, in my car, to back the f*** off! He was a dangerous bully.
Finally, he found an opening and passed me on the right. As the grey haired man went by in his Excursion, he violently shook an angry fist at me because I had the absolute nerve to not go faster than I wanted to just because he was menacing me by tailgating.
Did I:
A) Wave and smile!
B) Ignore him.
C) Shrug my shoulders.
or
D) Give him the finger...
Of those choices, what do you think you would have done?
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4 comments:
Let's see here...what one should do (in my opinion) in a situation like this is to simply ignore the man. Maybe he's on his way to his grandchild's birth or something equally as pressing. But, since I tend to act before I rationally think, I would have waved and smiled. Not to be friendly, but to really get his goat. To let him know that in spite of his actions, I'm having a good day. Choice (d) would be good too, if I were feeling especially feisty:)
I'm glad you had a good time with your family. A break is essential for Moms!
Shrug it off, then wave and smile. I really dislike road rage, especially when someone is putting me and my family in danger by riding our tails. At the same time, I don't want to take on the negative emotions of other drivers no matter what their reasons are for bad driving behavior. By shrugging it off and smiling, you can stay positive and hopefully safe.
I am sorry to hear this happened to you, and even sorrier that is an all too common occasion on the roads today.
Well holly, I was feeling feisty...if the kids would have been with me I would have been calm and forgiving and noble--"Maybe he's in a hurry to get to a sick relative." is what I always tell my kids when drivers are rude. Who knows what's going on?
This guy was just mean and arrogant. I'm not so arrogant as to think it's my job to correct him. Howevah, I felt it was OK for him to know I was not pleased at almost being road kill.
green mamma, you are right of course. I let it go right after that and didn't suck on it like a sore tooth--but I thought I would post about it because I'm also sick of people behaving like this. We're all in it together, aren't we? We better start acting like it.
I hate it when that happens! I'm not sure - hard to choose between A & D...I like to think I'd wave & smile (but in an FU sort of way, to be honest & to kill with kindness), but I might have given him the finger! Hopefully I'd be in a more zen place & wish him well.
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