The Harrowing Journey Home

What a bizarre day! I started this morning by going to a store to buy frames, at which point I lost all ability to make a decision and called my boss to ask her what she thought. They didn't really have what she wanted. So, I bought a nice frame, without a matt, thinking that the guy at work wanted to do his own. But, there was a nagging sense that I should have bought a back-up with the matt. After making my purchases, I walked quickly to the bread shop to get a bagel and coffee. I think that I overloaded on sugar. They have this wonderful cinnamon sugar bagel.

I have a pet peeve about places that are not really bagel places. The way to tell that a place is NOT really a bagel shop (or that they really just don't understand my needs) is that they give me a pre-cut bagel with the cream cheese on the side. This really makes NO sense to me at all, particularly when my bagel is ordered "to go". I mean, do they expect me to slather my bagel with cream cheese while I walk or in the car? It just does not make sense. Of course, the downside to the REAL bagel shop is that they consistently put too much cream cheese on my bagel. I have a tablespoon of cream cheese stuck in the hole, which is really too much to handle. So, I scrape it off on the paper and hope that the paper does not fly away as I drive...

Then I got to work and of course, the guy said that people normally buy one with a matt and we discussed the situation, with me saying that I would buy another frame and bring it in tomorrow. But, then he said that he would get a matt. At that point, I let it lay and went to my desk. The requests we instantaneous. I went throughout my day...

fast forward to lunch. BEAUTIFUL!!! I walk down the street and get a greek salad with chicken. It is all too salty, but I enjoy my sweet (too sweet, again) tea while sitting outside, text a few people, have a slightly surprising phone call with a friend, and go back to work.

fast forward to leaving, I leave the parking garage after trying my stumbling Swahili on the cashier. I have only just discovered that he is Kenyan yesterday and pieces of the language fall out of my mouth. Not a graceful fall, more of a stumble. I mix my words up and mumble. Of course, Spanish invades my brain. Then I exit, I turn left, turn right, turn right, avoid a stupid car, go down two blocks, avoid ANOTHER stupid car, turn right. Meandering down the street. I find myself to my turn again, this time to the left. I am in the second turn/straight lane in. The vehicle to my left, in a left turning lane ONLY, decides that the does not like that direction and speeds forward just as I am about to turn left. Inches from my car. I slam on my breaks and yell "shit" really loudly into my friend's ear and yet thanking God that I noticed that the car was not turning. Just for the record, I had my blinker on (don't you like the word "indicator" better than "blinker"?). Continued home. Just as I am getting on the parkway, I notice that a car is pulled over to the left and that the police officer is standing at his car, I encourage the brakes to slow me down, although I am not going very fast and I am in the far right lane. As I slow down, the car on my right speeds up and we watch the police officer wave him in. I always have wondered about that...how do you know that they are waving you to the side and is it not more dangerous to be slowing down in the middle lane and getting one lane over to stop. It seems far more dangerous than going 10 miles over the speed limit. I'm just not sure about the techniques of such operations.

Truly, I was getting a little anxious by that point, so much that I mised my exit down the road, had to go over a bridge and get back on before a toll road. I think that's when I noticed that I was not paying attention. My mystical inclinations lead me to think that all of these near misses are God trying to get my attention. Of course, the fact that I avoided the potential accidents might speak to the fact that I was aware. But, I slowed down none the less and thought more clearly as I went home. I talked to myself, as one does, about a variety of things-potential new friends, crazy drivers, what I need to do when I get home...what might I blog....