This morning I was in a really good mood. Got up early. 4:30am. Had some coffee. Went to the gym in my basement and did a bunch of kettlebell swings and push-ups. Played a little guitar. Felt like I had 'Crazy Mama' and 'Hand of Fate' by The Stones down pretty good. My eight year old got up early for school and came down and hung out before breakfast. Had a nice chat with my wife before she put him on the bus. I drove my 12 year old to school at 7 for his daily, before class pick-up basketball game. My kids are good. I'm feeling good. And low and behold, for the first time a week, the SUN comes up! No clouds. An actual sunrise.
So, I took the long way into work, put on my Keith Richards playlist (Take It So Hard, All About You, Thru and Tru, You Don't Have to Mean It), and looked forward to a good, quiet day at work with only two meetings! And then some guy nearly drove up my ass. I was going just over 40 in a 35. He brighted me. Honked his horn continuously. Then he sped around me, narrowly avoided a head-on collision, cut me off, then FLIPPED me off. Then he had to slam on his breaks at a light. I was right behind him shaking my head. He flipped me off in the rearview and ran the light, still flipping me off.
Okay. I wasn't going to let him get to me. Back to the music...."You know that we do take-away! We deliver tooooooooo..." Driving. Sunshine. A guy runs a stop sign and I nearly broad side him. He honks his horn and runs another stop sign. Almost gets t-boned again. I continue on, determined to remain upbeat.
I pull into my lot. It's an assigned spot. It has a sign that says, "RESERVED FOR THE CIO". A rusted out truck is parked in it. Sideways. Taking up two other spots. I park in a spot I that I know is not being used by anyone. No big deal.
I walk to the crosswalk. I cross with the light, when I'm supposed to. A woman nudges her car into the crosswalk about two feet me, annoyed that I exist and am crossing the street, slowing her down. The guy behind her lays on his horn. I jog out of the way and almost get his by another car as it rolls through the intersection to turn right on red. But, hey. This stuff happens most days. Why let it piss me off?
I walk up to little drug store to grab giant can of zero calorie Arnold Palmer. Always peps me up and I figure that will get me back on track. Until someone asks me for ten dollars. I tell him the truth. I don't have any cash on me. He replies without emotion, "I should have known you were a racist."
I go in to the store. Grab my drink. Attempt to pay but someone cuts to the front of the line to complain that the store doesn't sell cigarettes. This goes on for a few minutes before he turns and yells, "Mother#uckers!" I walk outside. It's cold but sunny. The air is brisk and fresh. A woman is yelling obscenities into her cell phone. A guy takes a bag of fast foot trash and throws out of his car window. It lands in the street.
I felt like pulling a Chuck Heston from Planet of the Apes and screaming, "It's a MADHOUSE! A MADHOUSE!" But I didn't.
Anyway....what in the hell is wrong with people?