Morning Commute

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.