What is wrong with you!

This morning was a typical, out of control morning. Everyone in the house was coughing and hacking. I was getting breakfast for the team. Miss Peach was rolling around on the floor whining about how she was "too sick to go to school"...Normal morning drill.

I got out the door, and The Little Man and I walked to school.

It was a drizzly day, and he was wearing his fireman rain boots while stomping through every puddle.

I make him hold my hand at every road..."because cars don't watch for us, we have to watch for them..."

There is a high school we pass every day on the way to the kiddos school. On a typical morning, it's busy with parents dropping off, city buses packed with students hustling to make the bell, and cars who didn't realize if they took this intersection, they'd be stuck in the school drop off crunch.

Usually, I avoid this intersection like it's not on the map, (I'm very good at being the horse with blinders on and going the same direction every single day.) but today, The Little Man wanted to go that way...Never. Again.

It's a "T" intersection where one road feeds into the road in front of the high school. We were crossing. I held The Little Man's hand in one hand, and my umbrella in the other. The first set of cars crossed from the left, then the car turning crossed. I made the move to cross...denied by the next set coming from the left...then the turning car bullied her way denying us our turn again...

By this time, everyone at the intersection waited for Little Man and I to cross. I try really hard to make eye contact with drivers before I walk into the street, even though I know that is not always possible. We got about a third of the way into the intersection...and the next turning car came barreling at us:O

I was SO shocked, since she came completely out of nowhere, and was almost on top of me.

You know that feeling, when things happen so fast, you don't have time to think, you just react?

I pointed my open umbrella at her car like it was some sort of fencing foil. I'm telling you, it was almost stabbing the hood of her car she was so close to us...and I screamed "WAIT!"

She saw us at the last minute, and slammed her brakes on.

Umbrella still out, I saw her through the window of her car. She had a horrified look on her face, and she was covering her mouth with her hand. I had what I can only imagine is a look of complete anger and disgust on my face. (To tell you the truth, I have no idea if the perception of how I look matches the actual look, but in my mind I was making the ugliest angry face I had.)

Anyway, I screamed from a very strange place in my gut...(The only time that sound comes out is when someone has startled me.) "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!!!!!!!"

Honestly, I think I scared her as much as she scared me...the only difference is, I didn't just about kill her and her four year old boy.

We got across the street, and an older woman who had witnessed the whole thing said "She should be publicly flogged!"

I don't understand drivers. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who drives defensively. True, I rarely drive, but when I do, I always try to go slow enough that I could stop if a kiddo comes out from between two cars. Usually, this leaves some p*ssed off impatient driver behind me who has somewhere important to be.

I know it's impossible to think about paying attention to the road all the time (not really) but when one is in front of a school....at drop off time...maybe a little eyes on the road wouldn't hurt eh?

7 comments

  1. God. I always say that there isn't anywhere important enough to risk someone's life over. If you hit somebody? You're going to be REALLY LATE for that job interview. Better to be a little late and arrive with everyone in one piece.

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  2. She obviously does not have kids (and my husband drives like that girl- I refuse to let him drive anymore!) Tiaras

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  3. You have much more restraint than I do. I would have beat the hood of her car with my umbrella sword. I'm glad The LIttle Man and you were unhurt. Sadly, people like that usually forget their close calls and still drive like idiots the next day.

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  4. Fantastic !! You did good, mama tiger.
    It makes no difference at all if she has kids or not, some people get behind the wheel and lose all common sense, sense of care or caution . or decency . they just want to get where they are headed and to hell with anything/one in their way.

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  5. GOD...as someone who was just in a fender bender with someone who DIDN'T stop, I feel this! I was crossing the street one time in NYC, and I HAD the light. As I step into the crosswalk, a cab tries to take a left into the lane I am in, and I just SCREAM "stop" with my hand up....Miraculously, and fortuntely, he did...and I did the same thing...what the HELL is wrong with you! I hope the guy in the cab got whereever he was going safely!

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  6. Good for you! A car did that to us last year and I smacked the trunk. The driver seemed shocked that I was mad. If you're close enough that I can touch your car, you are too close to our daughters.

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