road rage

My 2 year old has road rage.

It’s true, unfortunately for me.  Whenever we are stuck in traffic or approaching a red light she lays it on thick.  “GO!!!!”, from the backseat.  As if I enjoy sitting there.

I find myself assessing traffic patterns and driver behavior more as a result, mostly to save myself from the angry toddler.  And what I’ve noticed on the latter isn’t pretty.

The number of people texting in traffic or at stop signs (meaning you are still moving, by and large, or at least only really stopping briefly) is staggering.  The ones who scare me the most are the ones in my rear view mirror, and force me to resort to some mantra about not hitting my car.

I commute and there is a busy exit off the freeway that many of us frequent.  Lots of cars inching toward the stop sign at the end of the offramp.  This part of the commute is always a little anxiety inducing, as my little one can become a demanding dictator in the blink of an eye…

I saw a lady a few weeks ago on said offramp putting on her makeup.  I’ve seen her before, her orange car with the string from a long-ago-popped balloon which hangs from her rear windshield wiper.  Unmistakeable.  Before that day I had only noticed the car and not the driver.  This lady, focused on the mascara application in the mirror, hit the car in front of her (~shocking~), which held up traffic even more (insert “GO!!!” here) while she and the other driver assessed that there was no damage, thankfully.  While this was problematic enough, as soon as she got back in her car, she proceeded to pick up her phone and start texting.  Incessantly.  For miles.  I have since seen her many times on that route and have seen her reading papers, holding her phone to her ear, applying lipstick, etc.  I now go out of my way to avoid her.

The silver lining with noticing everyone else’s bad driving habits is being more conscious of my own (ahem) which are easy to ignore when your ears are bleeding from being shouted at from inches away.