20 March 2002

Sometimes, I'm a real jerk.

My morning commute involves an odd maneuver where I get onto a road but don't merge into traffic. Instead, I stay in the merge lane and immediately take the first exit. Williamsburg is like that.

This morning, as I pulled onto the road and did not hit my turn signal to indicate a merge, some fellow in a newish gold car pulled up behind me and braked very quickly - obviously wanting me to hurry up and merge so he could take my place in the exit ramp.

Much to his obvious annoyance, I did not merge.

He braked a little more and pulled into the ramp behind me, and followed me around. As I pulled out onto the road, he zipped up and immediately got into the left lane, ready to pass me. (How dare I drive to work in a leisurely manner?)

But just then, the light ahead of us changed, and the two pickup trucks - one in each lane - that were ahead of us decided to go ahead and stop for them. (A rarity for Williamsburg, I know.) So Mr. Impatient and I both stopped. I was glad to see that he wasn't in enough of a hurry to drive his shiny car onto the median and go around the trucks. Or maybe that was just the cop car coming the other way.

Out of simple curiosity, I inched forward a bit - I wanted a look at Mr. Impatient.

I was threatening his manhood or something, though, because his car lurched forward a few inches. How dare I attempt to get ahead of him at this light!

And so, when the light changed and the truck in front of me leapt into action, while the truck in front of him began a slow amble down the lane, I found myself highly amused. All the way to the next light, where I had to turn anyway, I watched Mr. Impatient hug the bumper of that truck, just looking for an opportunity to zip around it.

I waved when I passed him. 'Cause I'm just a jerk like that.

Karen was jonesing last night, and so was I, and so we had a session with Lisl and the New Scum. Ah, that was fun. It's like watching strange dogs circling each other, cautiously friendly but still not quite certain what the rules are.

I did have a bright and shining moment where - briefly - Dawn actually beat Lisl for paranoia. It was a moment of beauty.

I got another few pages written in the new story about them, too. At least, I got the prologue and setup finished. Now, I just have to write the meat of the story. I'll let you know when I get something posted, but I expect it will be a few days, yet.

--Liz