Saturday, July 31, 2010

Defensive Driving

And when I say defensive driving, I'm not talking about the kinds of things that are said after spending 7 hours in a car with Mr. Sophanne and the dog. If I were, I'd talk about how he smacks his mouth when he's chewing cashews. And he'd likely tell you about what a boring non-verbal traveling companion I am- (although- really- who can talk over that "cashews-in-your- teeth" smacking sound????)

Just kidding. None of the above happened. It just happened in my head- but was caused by spending 2 straight weeks in nearly constant company with each other. He's off to spend his "free money" from the casino and me and the Liza-girl get a little quiet time.

This quiet time means no t.v., no video games, no sand fleas biting at my ankles, a fully charged (without the fear of blowing a fuse) iPod touch with books on it, a wireless internet connection, a clean dog and clean sheets in the dryer kind of quiet time. A catch up on the favorite blogs quiet time. A "HOLY CRAP WE HAVE GREEN TOMATOES" quiet time. An "oh lookie the bunnies ate the strawberries we never saw" quiet time. A pet the cat who survived another two week vacation quiet time. And an "oh man it's too quiet without those awesome kids and their awesome mama" quiet time. Especially when I realize that the mama doesn't get the kind of quiet time I'm having right now.

How's the dog, you ask? EXHAUSTED. The kind of exhausted where the red in her lower eyelids appears and she can barely keep her eyes open even when I'm eating pizza. She wants that last bit of crust that I always give her but by the time I get to it, she's asleep again.

But back to defensive driving. While I'm certain this behavior has saved my life on more than one occasion, there is a drawback. I realized today that every other driver is an enemy in my mind.

Not just a "mind your own business not bothering me enemy" but a "hey you pissant driver why are you so stupid" enemy.

Even when they do nothing wrong.

In fact as we were motoring down the road, I asked Mr. Sophanne to flip off a couple of harmless buses from Shandon Baptist Church. He refused- or else he could't hear me over the cashew-chewing. This "request a random flip off from your spouse" behavior is not me. I don't do these things in real life. It had to be a cumulative effect of too much defensive driving.

In a better world we will all be able to get where we want to go without the fear of running big heaps of metal into each other. I will continue to drive defensively for now and try not to be quite so defensive.



Stay tuned for a blocked Brandywine (which will be promptly gifted to the daughter of the mr.) and pictures of green roma tomatoes.

7 comments:

JelliDonut said...

No kidding--I nearly got nailed three times driving DD home from her Japanese class tonight. I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. I think I wore my horn out. I don't care what happens--I am not leaving the house tonight. Glad YOU made it home safely.

flutter said...

if you need a good recipe for fried green tomatoes....

Lydee said...

agreed. and the thing that gets me going is driving through construction on the interstate in wv. where do drivers get off thinking they can STOP on the interstate to let people ramp onto the highway? that burns my biscuits.

roxie said...

Isn't it odd how there are days when the entire world seems to have its head up and locked? Glad you got home safely in spite of it all. I have found that flipping off the other drivers does not improve the situation and really isn't sufficiently satisfying. For full satisfaction, I would need a machine gun turret and rocket grenades. Lacking that, I just announce, "Karma works, Idiot!" (But just once, when the cocky lad in his Rav 4 scares the crap out of me by blasting up on my right and cutting me off, Laughing with evil glee, and then pulling in to the next mini mart, I would like to be an instrument of Karma.)

Sunshine said...

welcome home!!!!!

Cindy said...

Is that what that's called? I'm always so p.o'd when I'm driving. I called it my Angry Driving. I always feel so much better after yelling at someone who has made me mad, but really not done a darned thing. Thank heavens we took the train!

Yarnhog said...

Hey, welcome home, and congratulations on surviving!

Being mama is definitely an exhausting task. I once left my kids with a couple of college sisters (daughters of friends of ours) so we could go out to dinner with their parents. When we got back, they told me they had decided we need a new national holiday, just for me--for taking care of those kids every day!