Do you ever wonder why people are so grouchy on the freeway in the morning? Maybe they didn’t have their cup of coffee, maybe they overslept and are running late to work, or maybe they just aren’t nice people.
I pondered this question on my way to work this morning after a rather rude encounter by a woman in a navy blue SUV that selfishly decided that I wasn’t suppose to merge into HER lane.
This story needs a bit of background, so please bear with me. I get on 183/121 at Norwood and I know that in order to make it smoothly through morning traffic, I need to move over into the left most lane before the bridge over Bedford-Euless Road.
This morning was just like any other. I peacefully merged onto the freeway, Craig following right behind me. He kindly lets me merge into the middle lane after he saw an opening. Now I’m approaching the bridge and I’m checking my mirrors for a smooth opening into the left lane. I see one. The black Tahoe is moving faster and there is a considerable gap between the Tahoe and the car behind him – the blue SUV.
I turn on my blinker, I start my merge, and the blue SUV speeds up. I tense up in my car thinking she’s going to hit me, but she slams on her brakes and throws up her hands. I didn’t think much of it, because truthfully, I did what any normal morning commuter would do, check the lane, put on your blinker, then slowly move over, and merge peacefully with faster traffic into a reasonable spot for my car to go.
But this woman, this B, had a bigger agenda to discuss with me. She pulls up next to me on my left. That’s right, my left. For those of you unfamiliar with 183/121, to the left of the left most lane is the shoulder. This crazy lady was driving on the shoulder to yell at me. I simply looked at her, called her a B… I know, I shouldn’t have, but she is one… and then told her I had my blinker on and not to speed up when someone is coming over into your lane.
As a quick reminder, Craig is still following behind me. All-the-while this lady is in the shoulder, Craig pulls up behind me, trying to box her into the shoulder. She quickly cuts him off, making him swerve into the middle lane, thank God no one was there for him to hit. Craig lays on his horn as he is yelling at her. She is now making signs at him explaining that she is mad that I cut her off (which I didn’t). I make signs back at her by throwing my hands up in a “deal with it” fashion.
Things go smoothly after that, she didn’t even tail gate me. I think she knew she was in the wrong after she thought about it. At least I hope that’s why she didn’t ride my behind. Either that or she figured out that Craig and I were a team and no one on the road was going to treat the other that way.
That lady must have had a horrendous bad start to her day. I mean, seriously, are we 5 years old and I took your toy on the play ground? Can you not just drive nice in the morning knowing that everyone around you is in the same boat called traffic? The way I look at it is if someone needs to move over and they are willing to go just as fast, if not faster than me, fine have at it. I have no problem with people moving over into my lane as long as they aren’t close enough to hit me… and I wouldn’t speed up if someone were close.
I admit I’m not the best at tolerating people’s stupidity, especially when they are driving. But in recent years, I feel I’ve gotten considerably better. I don’t yell as much in the car and I try to overlook people’s unwillingness to do certain simple things like obeying a yield sign on the access road as people exit the freeway. All-in-all, I think I’m less stressed when I drive because I try to have a different outlook.
Not this morning… I wanted to rip her battery out of her engine and slash her tires. That lady is an idiot.
There, now I feel better.
Last night was Suzanna’s 4th birthday party. I still can’t believe our little niece is 4. I feel like she was just a little baby yesterday.
Her party was at Carole and Blue’s country club, Brookhaven, in Farmers Branch. It was actually a decent drive over there after work and I found the road to be soothing after a long day. Strange, huh? Anyway, her party was completely pink and she got tons of Barbie and princess stuff. Just what she needs, more girly dolls. I’m sure I got plenty of girly things when I was younger, but I quickly turned to sports, micro machines, and more boyish things. In watching Suzanna last night, I don’t think she’ll make that change, but I hope she takes an interest in sports, sometimes it’s a great way to meet guys. Not that she needs to worry about that now, but I digress.
Back to last night’s party. Oh, to be 4 again and only care about playing games and keeping the balloons on my arm. At one point, Craig’s dad, David, thought Suzanna had a hold of the balloons, but she didn’t. The balloons slowly drifted toward the 10 ft. high ceiling and Suzanna started to wail. With her crying, you would have thought the balloons were going to travel to the moon and she was never going to see them again. David quickly reached up and got them, but it took a few minutes of consoling by Carole for Suzanna to really believe the balloons were going to stay firmly on her arm – thanks to the slip knot I tied for her. Before we knew it, she was tired of the balloons and wanted to play a game without the bothersome string on her arm. Silly girl.
All-in-all, it was a good time. It’s fun to watch her grow up, because while she’s young, she makes me feel like a kid again.
Sorry, no pictures from the party. I accidently left my camera in the car and Carole only had a disposable camera with her… there’s always next year!
Things constantly change around us, there is no denying that. The seasons, our hair color – girls you know what I’m talking about, fashion, etc…
I started thinking about the changes currently going on around me, and while it’s not many, some are big changes.
Our nations leader is about to change hands. It will be a historic event that I’m actually looking forward to. I’m not ashamed to say I’m a republican and side more with the republican ideas than democratic, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t respect a democratic leader. And this new leader of all people, makes me want to follow and respect him more than any other democratic president we’ve had (in my wee little life time).
I’m looking forward to Tuesday and watching President-Elect Obama’s inauguration. I caught a snippet of President Bush’s farewell speech last night and I feel for the man. He’s been through so much as our nation’s president and it shows on his face. I’m sure he’s looking forward to some time to relax and having more breathing room in Dallas.
I’m looking forward to change. My dad always told me, change can be good. Change the route you drive home, change your fashion, change your hair style, change your mind.
But one thing I don’t want to change; my family and friends. I can add new ones, but I don’t want to change the ones I have.
I’m safe and sound, back at work. I was off work from Christmas Eve until yesterday. That’s quite a long time to be gone. Fortunately, nothing too big happened while I was away. However, one of my good friends at work decided to put in her two weeks. I’m really bummed that I won’t see her smiling face everyday, but I’m happy that’s she moving on to pursue her dream! You rock, Laura.
Other than that, things seem pretty normal at the good ol’ place of employment. And I’m actually happy to be back. Don’t get me wrong, I would totally love to be a ski bum all day if I didn’t have to worry about money, bills, living expenses, you know…
I’ve posted a few pictures in my Kodak gallery online. Instead of bogging down my blog, you can check them out here: Ski Trip 2009.
Allen and Michelle took tons of pictures. I’ll upload more when I get them.
We’ve been in Colorado for two full days and what an adventure it has been.
We’re staying in the Snowshoe Motel in Frisco, Colorado. Frisco is between Breckenridge and Copper Mountain. We’re skiing at Copper.
We have a little kitchenette in our motel room so we don’t have to spend a ton of money while eating out. It’s a great concept, if the oven was working. So far we haven’t been able to eat our pizza because it’s not working. But the stove top works, so we’ve had potato soup and tacos. All and all, it’s not too bad.
It’s been snowing the whole time we’ve been here. Yesterday was windy and cold as the winter storm was moving in. Today, we woke up to 10 new inches of snow! The skiing conditions are better today than yesterday. Not near as many people because you can’t see very far and the runs have tons of fresh power… knee deep in some places. It is loads of fun skiing when you can’t even see your knees. I love to ski.
Craig has gotten really good on his snowboard. He can ride the mountain like it’s no body’s business.
Allen and Michelle aren’t doing too badly either. They took a lesson yesterday and we picked up with them today. Michelle is really good at snaking down the mountain. Allen is getting the hang of it, but he’s really good at going fast.
Yesterday while we were waiting for them to finish with their lesson, Craig and I were defrosting at Union Station, a little indoor rental and locker place. The skis and snowboard were outside in the racks just outside the door. When we finally met up with Allen and Michelle and were ready to head back to Frisco, we noticed my skis were missing. I was freaking out! If you don’t know, I own my skis.
I went back inside and had, Tyler, the person behind the desk, call security. When the security guard arrived, he took down my information and a description of my skis. I asked him what the chances are that I would get my skis back, and he said only 7% of skis are returned. I lost it. I could barely look at the people after that because tears were streaming down my face. Craig was so mad he had to keep going outside in the cold to cool off.
After filling out the paper work, we started to head over to lost and found to see if they had been turned it. We noticed that there was a pair of skis still in the rack that looked similar to mine and we through they might have picked mine up by mistake. We went back in to see if they could look up the person’s name and/or number to see if the resort could call the person. We brought the skis in and I memorized the rental number. At that location, they couldn’t look up the renters name… talk about a bad feeling.
We then headed over to lost and found. They were able to look up the persons number based on the rental number I memorized, but couldn’t contact them right then. It was just a waiting game now.
We hopped on the bus to bring us back to Frisco. Talk about a long ride home. I didn’t look up once because I was praying the whole time that God would help those people be honest and bring the skis back.
God answered my prayers (and those of Allen, Michelle, and Craig)! We received a phone call when we were walking in the door of the motel saying that they picked up the wrong pair of skis by mistake.
My skis were waiting for me this morning at lost and found! I was so happy that I kissed my skis when I got them back.
I’m one of the 7% of people whose skis are returned… what a good feeling!
I traveled with my parents to Weatherford today. What a fun trip. I introduced my dad to geocaching (found 4 out of 5 today) and we visited First Monday – a trade/fair ground thing before the first Monday of every month.
My mom was looking for some antique barbed-wire for making these crosses. I got one for Christmas and it’s very cool, so she wanted to make more of them to sell.
While we were at First Monday, we came across this lady selling pet beds. After hageling with her for a little bit, I decided to get a new bed for Maddie. I brought it home and she absolutely loved it. She took her time smelling it, then laid down for a short nap. She became wiry once Craig came home from work, but was so cute laying on the giant pillow during the Colts vs. Chargers playoff game.
Gotta love a simple dogs life… then again, Monkey’s life isn’t too bad either. She doesn’t need a cool pillow; she has the short couch!Please enjoy the pictures from today. Dad being silly with Maddie's new pillow.Maddie on her new pillow. 
Monkey's favorite sleeping spot.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!Love,The Eastepps
