Life in the slow lane

image from flickr

Last night, when I was driving home from school, I had a terrible experience. I was going my usual 20 in a 25 (I'm not kidding) and I saw a car coming toward me in the other lane. No big deal, right? When this minivan decides to pull onto the road, that oncoming car was a big deal! I couldn't swerve into the other lane while this minivan pulled out. SO I did what my reflexes told me to and freaked out. This caused me to slam on the breaks and stop about one inch from this minivan. Or rather, he was one inch from me to my right. My passenger door was one inch away from making my car a total loss. I was shaking a bit, gripping the wheel, as I looked into the eyes of my attacker. He looked a bit like this...



A very young looking 16 year old, driving his mother's minivan. I started screaming, throwing my arms in the air, and drove away looking something like this...



But as I grumped in my car, I started thinking about when I was *cough* 17 *cough* and driving and... I am sorry to say that in high school... I was a terrible driver. Sorry to tell you Mom, but I was terrible. There are many occasions that I could have died or crashed or gotten into some severe fender bender. I remember a month or so after I started driving on my own, I knew that I had to stop before I turned right at a red light. So, I stopped, and went... And so did the cars that were turning left at a green light... That woman yelled and waved her arms so big, I will never forget to look for cars before I turn.

And then there was when the car behind me called the driving school to complain about my slow-ness.



So readers, I would like to think I taught that... kid... a lesson. LOOK BEFORE YOU TURN! It's a simple lesson, but one I think we need to be scared the bejesus into learning. Personally, I prefer to live life in the slow lane. Five under the speed limit. With my turn signal on a quarter mile before I turn. Zero tickets and counting.