'Roid Rage

Unfortunately, I believe I've been suffering from 'Roid Rage.  I mean, probably not really, but it sure as heck seems like it.

I had an allergic reaction to something used during the surgery.  It was either the adhesive they used to secure my stitch strip things or the sanitizer they used to clean my abdomen before they operated.  Either way, I had this horrible reaction with angry welts and itchiness beyond reason.  It was miserable.  I would wake up at all hours of the night and scratch, scratch, scratch, then repeat.  The itchiness has definitely gotten better, but not gone away.  The welts are gone and the redness is down.  My hormones, however, are ragin'.

I have pretty bad road rage to begin with.  If you've ever ridden with me in the car, you know this.  But after my third speeding ticket and traffic school experience, I came to the realization that I needed to chill the eff out.  I still get upset sometimes, especially if I'm in a rush or people are just being *complete* idiots, but it's definitely improved.

So Tuesday night, traffic was bad because of the rain, but I really didn't get too upset about it.  Yesterday, however, made me irate.

Traffic was bad for no good reason: i.e. the sun was shining, the roads were dry, hump day was over.  I should've been a happy time.  It was not, though.  There was one particular situation that just pissed me off so badly, that I had to share about it here.

{Scenario A}

Scenario A- I'm not a good artist, but these are cars, bear with me

So traffic was horrible on my drive home yesterday.  Now the route I normally take is 65 South to Broadway/Church/Charlotte, depending on how badly traffic is backed up.  Unfortunately, yesterday traffic was backed almost all the way to the split where you choose to go to Memphis, or where you make the poor decision to go toward Knoxville/Huntsville.  I went my merry way and saw the traffic was backed up pretty far.  I politely worked my way over to the far right lane as opportunities became available.  I was a polite citizen and used my blinker to indicate my decision and then I politely sat in the far right lane, aka exit ramp for Charlotte Pike, waiting for my turn to sit at the light.

Clearly there is no where to go, as traffic is dead stopped.  Asshole, as I've labeled him on the priceless artwork above, decides he's more important than everyone in the entire universe and that rules do not apply to him.  I wish I'd gotten the memo.  He decides he'll go around all of us on the right shoulder.

Um, no?  That's not fair.  Why wouldn't asshole have to wait his turn like everyone else.  It infuriated me.  He managed to get slightly ahead of me on the shoulder (which is not indicated in the picture above) and then he foolishly let me gain on him.  Now, I must state that I had already been hugging, if I wasn't already over the solid white line.  So I get past him and pull even further over the white line so that he can not get around me.  Hah, serves him right.  

He then decides that life is too short to keep living, so he nearly swipes my bumper as he jerks it left to go around me as another car is flying up the left land of the exit ramp.  He narrowly avoided hitting the on-coming car.  He then flew up to sit behind other cars at the light.  In a hurry to sit and wait.  Awesome.  I never saw him again.

This morning before I left for work, M was watching the news and saw the traffic report.  According to Tennessee Mornings, my commute was going to s-u-c-k.  M looked up the TDOT map of the accidents and saw that traffic was being diverted along my route.  He suggested I take Franklin Road.  However, I did that on Tuesday and FRA traffic slows that down, so I sucked it up and hopped on 65 North.  There was typical traffic all the way through downtown where it said traffic was being diverted.  I didn't meet a hitch in my commute until I got to my exit, where traffic was backed up to the split for the exit ramp. 

I will tell you about Scenario B.  It occurs at least once a week, so it's a regular rage producer for me, but I'm including it since it still falls under my 'roid rage.

{Scenario B}

 

Scenario B, these are also cars.  I'm such a good artist

The off-ramp to get off at my exit for work, Rosa Parks, often backs up.  They're doing construction on a bridge at the exit, which contributes to the suck-age, but often times, it's just because people are idiots.  When the ramp is backed all the way up to the split, as it was this morning, it means I will be late to work.  It can add up to 10-15 more minutes of waiting.  

Today it was backed up.  Now today isn't as bad as a lot of days, but it still wasn't pleasant.  People, like asshole in Scenario A, think that they are more entitled to breaking rules, and bypassing those who have been patiently waiting.  They will fly up around the traffic, like Blinker Jerk in the artwork above.  They expect to be let in.  I don't mind when it's further back, because sometimes it's people who are coming from the west and they don't have an opportunity to get in the exit lane.  Some people do it, however, when the white line is no longer a dash, but a solid white line.  I do not let those people in.  I will let them hit me if they think it's important enough to break driving rules and think they're better than every other person whose been waiting for 10 minutes.

Clearly these issues rub me the wrong way, especially when I am not sleeping well because I'm taking a steriod pack to keep me from itching from my allergic reaction, and especially when I suspect I'm suffering from 'roid rage.  I'm probably not, but at least I finally have something to blame for my driving frustrations.

T-minus 20 minutes until I leave.  Let's hope traffic is exponentially better than it was yesterday and the day before.

Tonight's the Harry Potter premiere, so I've been looking forward to that all day, plus Carolyn's almost in town, and I'm looking forward to Friday and a fun-filled weekend.  As my coworker Kendra would say, Happy Friday Eve!