Wait your turn...

If you were in line at the bank, grocery store, post office, pretty much anywhere, you would never expect to see someone walk into the building and step in line in front of you.  Why then, as drivers, do people think it is okay to cut in line?  Just because you are in your car, doesn't mean that you are immune to the rules of society.  No, your time is NOT more important than mine and zipping past all of the other cars to throw your blinker on right before you practically run me off the road does not make it okay.

Once upon a time it would be okay for someone to not realize that they had to get over.  Maybe it was your first time driving that particular way and suddenly you find yourself in the right turn lane, but you don't want to go right. You look to the left to see if anyone is coming then try to safely make your way over.  If not, you go ahead and turn right to go around the block and try it again.

Now, people will purposely cut into your lane without so much as a blinker and expect you to yield.  This morning I almost lost it.  I had several cars try to get in my lane while I was in it.  The lane that I had already waited 10 minutes in to get to where I was.  They zipped past all of the other cars behind me and decided I was the sucker that was going to let them in.  Guess what?  They were SO VERY WRONG.  I did not let them in.  I held my ground and almost got a white stripe down the side of my very red car. 

Lots of gesturing later, the person behind me let them in.  I was furious!  Stand strong, don't let these bad mannered drivers win.  Every work day I go through this dance to get to my office.  Every work day there are multiple people that believe their time is more important than mine.  Every work day I mutter to myself that they are very lucky I don't own any type of gun because the tire shop down the street would be pretty busy.

I really try not to let this get to me. I try so hard not to have road rage, to not let those bad mannered drivers get the best of me, but more and more people have decided that this is the RIGHT way to drive. They are entitled to my space, even though I am still IN IT!  Don't be surprised if you see a news story tomorrow about the woman who blocked the freeway off ramp not allowing anyone to pass while hysterically screaming at everyone from on top of her car.  That just might be me.

The downfall of a blogger...

I have noticed this same trend amongst some of the other bloggers out there.  When we have a burning platform or something exciting to announce, we are anxious to share with our blogger hoods.  When life is rolling along like a quiet river, it is not so easy to come up with new ways to connect to your friends.  I originally started blogging so that I had somewhere to write down the crap that was swamping me.  Between Nonna and the ex and the myriad of other stress factors I had in my life, I really needed an outlet.

Now, I am happily rolling down the stream.  Yes, Nonna is still a nut case and the ex is still a low life, but I am no longer wrapped up in those things.  Having this outlet has really helped me.  Who needs a therapist?  LOL!

That being said, I have been busy lately.  I have been traveling for work, seeing new cities and having a lot of fun being married.  The new household situation has become the norm and we are all playing nicely together.  That is all of us except the dryer which has decided that it will now loudly protest being used.  What is the point of a dryer if you can't use it? 

I hope everyone else is rolling along the stream merrily, merrily, merrily...

What do you do for others?

On a daily basis, I run through the gambit of what I need to do for myself, my daughter, my family, but seldom do I worry if I am doing enough for others outside of that immediate group. "I am too busy" I tell myself.  "I have so much going on, how could I possibly take on more" is another favorite of mine.  Then I ponder those "special" people in our lives that somehow always manage to do more.  They do for their families, they do for their friends AND they still manage to find time to do for others.  Strangers, neighbors, community members, each group gets some time from them.  You will recognize these people as the ones that always have time to chat for a few minutes as you are going in or out of the house or when you happen to run into them at the grocery store.  They are the providers of the baked goods to the family that just had a crisis, they are the hands that help after a tragedy and they are the hands that clap at our successes.

I tend to focus on the immediate.  What do I need to get done for me and my family today, this week, this month. Beyond that I can't be bothered. Why make those plans when I don't even have time to consider what I have to do now.  Then next month rolls around and I find that everyone else is just as busy as I am, but do I learn from my mistake and plan ahead?  No, I again get wrapped up in myself and what I need to do for now.

The funniest part of this is that I have never been a procrastinator.  I have always been a planner, looking ahead onto the horizon of what comes next.  Somehow in the last year I have become someone living just for the now.  If someone asks me about the future I get flustered and brush them off.  How will I know what I am doing then? It is still so far away.

At least now I have realized where I have ended up and can steer my ship back towards the horizon rather than continue to sail in the doldrums! 

What have you done for someone else recently?