Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Why People Suck
So I'm out running this morning between 6:30 and 7:30 AM and I can't believe how obnoxious people are when they know they did something wrong and are called on it. I'm running through my own neighborhood, maybe 2 miles away from my house through another development and I'm hugging the left side of the road running against traffic. I'm not seeing many cars because I'm in a development but a lot of people are starting to leave their driveways on their way to work. I'm coming up on a stop sign and I'm going to make a left. I hear an engine coming behind me and before I know it, the driver rolls right smack through the stop sign and makes a left also. I'm not even sure there was an attempt to slow down. Now don't get me wrong, I do the "rolling stop sign" every once in a while, but I slow way down and make damn sure there isn't a car, bike or human anywhere NEAR the intersection before I pull that. I know that doesn't make it right, but if I got a ticket doing it, I couldn't complain. Well, this person's window happened to be down and it pissed me off that with me right there making the same left - she decided to go through it. What if I had went straight? I'm not even sure she saw me. Anyway - I point and say simply "Stop Sign" as our heads can't be more then 7-8 feet apart. I can see at this point that she is also the same size as her car, a small Suzuki jeep. In fact, she may have weighed more than the jeep - but oh, well. She proceeds to smile, wave at me and very mockingly tells me to have a nice day. Have a nice day? It wouldn't be so nice if the bitch would have hit me! In that one split second I targeted her as the fat chick who has always been fat and hates people that have the will to exercise. There were a million things I could have said back. Heck, supposedly I'm the witty one in the office that makes everyone laugh. It would have been hilarious to point again and say "Salad Bar". It would have been hilarious to say "Run much?". It would have been really funny to say something like "I guess I'm too thin and you couldn't see me". Nope. At moments like these I have what my mother used to use as an excuse "that German blood in me" whatever that means. My sister and dad can both hear her saying it right now as they're reading this. Nope, I chose to not be witty. I chose to not make fun of her weight. Maybe she has a glaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand problem. Yeah, that's it. Anyway, I dug deep into my insult bag of tricks and flicked her off while disgustedly screaming "Yuck Fou". I run the same routes on most days. I know the car. I know the driver. I know I'll see her again. Next time, I'm gonna go 3rd grade on her and just fill my cheeks up with air when she looks over. Damn Fatty McButterpants. Hrumph. A wave and a "Sorry" would have sufficed. Some day she'll have kids (well.....) and won't want people running stop signs in our hood.
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8 comments:
I ran the 5 1/2 mile loop up the hill behind my house this morning. I passed a total of 5 cars in that hour of running. Everyone of the drivers waved and moved over to allow me plenty of room.
There is a big difference between big suburbia and country living. (And we have a lot of German blood in the neighborhood.)
Fan, that's a funny story. But I got to admit, the fat bitch got you on this one.
She used what I call the "turn the other cheek" retort.
You and I were both taught to turn the other cheek when confronted or accosted with insult and wrongdoing. All thru the Sunday School and Bible School days of our youth they repeated this. And frankly, I never saw the value of it until scores of years later.
But as with most teachings in the Bible it is a worthy thing to know. For few things piss off someone more than being nice to them once they have called you out. They simply do not know how to respond. And this is evidenced by the thought process you went through before coming up with the very original, Yuck Fou. That woman probably laughed all the way to work.
Next time she waves polietly and wishes you a good day I suggest the following:
You wave back and say, "And you have a safe day, ma'am. Cause driving like that, your fat ass is likely to be dead before you get to work!"
i know what you're saying....and if i was mean first and she responded like that, then it would have been a lesson learned. i just hate it that she was doing something wrong and then failed to even acknowledge it! yeah, she played the confrontation right...but she souldn't have been in the confrontation in the first place! i pray for karma in those situations. karma would be an entire blueberry pie eating her instead of the other way around!
dog, what lesson finally taught you years later about the truth behind the teachings?
i've sliced and diced this 1,000 ways and from my slanted point of view, it's a perfect morning, the sun is out but it's a cool 66, i'm training for a half marathon with a head full of good thoughts like "man, i never thought i could do this" and "wow, my blood pressure appreciates me doing this" and "what am i going to eat for lunch today" and then out of nowhere someone going too fast for a development runs a stop sign in the same direction i am going literally FEET from my body.
i have been "me" far too long to not say anything. i thought the initial "Stop Sign" was informative if anything, no need to crank me up even more!
Hey, I think it was OK for you to point out her error to her. Especially since it was your safety at risk. But you see how she cranked you up even more by being cordial instead of retaliatory.
I think I learned the lesson about the "turn the other cheek retort" when I was about 39 or 40 years old.
I had taken my dog Star to a fundraiser for Dalmatian Rescue where people got their dog's picture taken with Santa Claus. Sounds stupid but the place was packed. I was only there because I was part of the group putting on the event.
Anyway, Star-dog did not get along with other strange dogs particularly well. So to control her I kept her on a short leash with a correction collar to keep her in line.
This butt-brain with some little foo-foo dog wanted to socialize Foo-Foo with Star. Star was having none of it and I gave her a couple strong corrections to keep her at my side instead of lunging for his dog's face.
Apparently this guy took offense to me handling my dog in this manner. And began to chastise me in front of all these people.
To tell you the truth I was embarrassed and wanted to either A. Take his ass outside and see if he liked the way I handled him any better than the way I handled my dog or B. Just let Star rip the face off Foo-Foo. But I didn't.
Instead I first apologized. Then I thanked him profusely for his sound advice. Acknowledging along the way that he evidently knew my dog's personality so much better than I did that I was sure a simple "Stay" command would work in the future.
He just gave me a mean look and took his dog and left. If not, he at least stayed far away from me. So, mission accomplished without me making a big scene about it.
From then on I recognized the value of apologizing for something for which you are not sorry and being cordial and polite when fury is raging inside you.
I once heard Arthur Ashe say, "Those the Gods wish to destroy, they make angry first."
Unfortunately I find it difficult to take this path sometimes (German Blood) but it does indeed work.
i think you should have kicked his ass :)
but you are right. i will try to control that next time. good story.
You should learn to control yourself like I do when shopping for stereo equipment.
consider that my apprenticeship :)
i remember grandma being in a double room (much to her distaste)in the hospital once and she said very matter of factly "if larry was here i'd have MY OWN room").
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