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i didn't even know motorcycles had horns.
I've calmed down from this now, since I got home safely and have been here for close to half an hour, but the last mile or so of my trip home tonight was not so fun. I was behind a motorcycle in the right lane for the single exit I spent on the Beltway, and although he was signaling right he didn't actually move to the right at the beginning of the exit ramp, so I assumed he was in fact not exiting - so by the time he did move over, I'd picked up a little of the distance between us, and had to slow down again when he exited onto the ramp right in front of me. No problem, I thought; I didn't have to slam on the brakes or anything, and I didn't blare my horn at him or really bug him in any way - he was in front of me, and then he was in front of me again, and no worries. The exit ramp divides into two lanes, and he was in the right lane, so I moved over into the left lane, and reached the light at the end of the ramp before he did.
When he pulled up next to me and honked his (high-pitched) horn at me, I looked over once - because when someone honks a horn at you it might be because you've got something hanging out your passenger side door, or you're missing a tail light, or whatever. Not in this case: he was making gestures and presumably yelling at me. I attempted to gesture pacifically that there were two lanes, and he was in one and I was in the other - and then I turned my eyes to the light and waited anxiously for it to turn green while the guy honked his horn at me two or three more long, drawn-out times. Then the light turned green. I turned carefully through it, keeping in my lane the whole time, stopping behind the truck that was in my lane at the next light; the guy on the motorcycle pulled up next to me, rather than all the way to the light in his lane, and honked his horn again. Two or three more honks (I don't know about gestures; I was resolutely not looking to my right) in the next quarter-mile or so, before he mercifully turned off onto a side road two lights before my own turning.
I have not been so glad to see someone leave the road I was on in a long time. Even before the light at the end of the ramp turned, I was thinking about what I'd say if I decided to call the police and tell them I was being harassed or threatened. Big guy on a motorcycle, wearing a reflective jacket reading "central operations" - not so helpful. He was sitting on my fender, so I couldn't report the license plate. It took approximately twenty seconds for my subconscious to cook up a scenario in which the guy followed me until I parked my car and I didn't feel safe getting out of it. If, as it did indeed happen, I couldn't park at my own building but had to park a couple of blocks away, how the hell was I going to get home? I mean, at that point I could more legitimately have called 911 ... and then been held hostage in my car? Then I thought, what if he leaves me alone but when I get back to the car in the morning I find it scratched up or its tires in ribbons? So I was just so relieved when the guy turned off onto his side street and left me the hell alone, and I hate (hate, HATE) that people are such assholes &c.
In other news, I have been exhausted for days, and a couple of people at curling have suggested that I need more vitamin D and more protein (both of which sound reasonable). I've also been smelling random phantom smells, and a couple of people at chorus and at curling have wondered whether I'm pregnant. (I'm not.)
In other other news, I have been trying to set up a time for yet another blind date, and have gone ahead and advised the guy that while I am cute and funny (and modest!), I am also undergoing orthodontic treatment. I mean. On the one hand, a grown man who sees braces and runs away screaming is not someone I want to hang out with even when I don't have braces on my teeth. But on the other hand, now that I've given him the heads up, the odds are less that he will go holy crap, this is a thirty-three-year-old woman with braces on her teeth (who plays video games!), what's next, glittery lip gloss and a 9pm curfew? In short, the dates are getting less and less blind as I'm cutting through more of the crap with every successive dude, and right now I'm fine with that. :-P
And now: advil, because the braces were indeed tightened this morning, and ow.
When he pulled up next to me and honked his (high-pitched) horn at me, I looked over once - because when someone honks a horn at you it might be because you've got something hanging out your passenger side door, or you're missing a tail light, or whatever. Not in this case: he was making gestures and presumably yelling at me. I attempted to gesture pacifically that there were two lanes, and he was in one and I was in the other - and then I turned my eyes to the light and waited anxiously for it to turn green while the guy honked his horn at me two or three more long, drawn-out times. Then the light turned green. I turned carefully through it, keeping in my lane the whole time, stopping behind the truck that was in my lane at the next light; the guy on the motorcycle pulled up next to me, rather than all the way to the light in his lane, and honked his horn again. Two or three more honks (I don't know about gestures; I was resolutely not looking to my right) in the next quarter-mile or so, before he mercifully turned off onto a side road two lights before my own turning.
I have not been so glad to see someone leave the road I was on in a long time. Even before the light at the end of the ramp turned, I was thinking about what I'd say if I decided to call the police and tell them I was being harassed or threatened. Big guy on a motorcycle, wearing a reflective jacket reading "central operations" - not so helpful. He was sitting on my fender, so I couldn't report the license plate. It took approximately twenty seconds for my subconscious to cook up a scenario in which the guy followed me until I parked my car and I didn't feel safe getting out of it. If, as it did indeed happen, I couldn't park at my own building but had to park a couple of blocks away, how the hell was I going to get home? I mean, at that point I could more legitimately have called 911 ... and then been held hostage in my car? Then I thought, what if he leaves me alone but when I get back to the car in the morning I find it scratched up or its tires in ribbons? So I was just so relieved when the guy turned off onto his side street and left me the hell alone, and I hate (hate, HATE) that people are such assholes &c.
In other news, I have been exhausted for days, and a couple of people at curling have suggested that I need more vitamin D and more protein (both of which sound reasonable). I've also been smelling random phantom smells, and a couple of people at chorus and at curling have wondered whether I'm pregnant. (I'm not.)
In other other news, I have been trying to set up a time for yet another blind date, and have gone ahead and advised the guy that while I am cute and funny (and modest!), I am also undergoing orthodontic treatment. I mean. On the one hand, a grown man who sees braces and runs away screaming is not someone I want to hang out with even when I don't have braces on my teeth. But on the other hand, now that I've given him the heads up, the odds are less that he will go holy crap, this is a thirty-three-year-old woman with braces on her teeth (who plays video games!), what's next, glittery lip gloss and a 9pm curfew? In short, the dates are getting less and less blind as I'm cutting through more of the crap with every successive dude, and right now I'm fine with that. :-P
And now: advil, because the braces were indeed tightened this morning, and ow.
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I do feel obligated to point out that I know two people even older than I who have had braces in the last few years. It's not that unusual. Nothing wrong with cutting through the crap, though.
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w/r/t braces: yes, there are patients older than myself at my actual orthodontist's. And it turns out my chorus administrator, who is well past 80, had braces herself in the past ten or fifteen years. One feels like the only one sometimes, but there's no need for that. ... Still a fan of cutting through the crap, though, as you say.
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*protective hug*