Stopping Traffic

On my way home from a recent trip downtown I found myself heading north on I-75. About a mile and a half from the exit to 696, I began to merge over to the right hand lanes. (Both of the two right lanes exit to 696, the far one goes east, the near one goes west, I was in the near lane.) To my right there was a guy in a pickup truck -- shirtless, muscled, tan, and wearing an actual cowboy hat. Although I couldn't hear the radio, I'd bet my two front teeth he was listening to Travis Tritt.

At first I thought he was motioning to me to see if I still needed to get over into the far right lane, but, upon closer inspection, it turned out that he was actually making horrible lewd gestures at me. Sticking out his tongue, blowing me kisses, and even pointing at his lap! Not wishing to encourage him, I returned my attention to the road and kept both hands on the wheel while looking straight ahead. I was still aware of him in my peripheral vision, but he was going east and I was going west and that would be the end of it as soon as we hit our exits.

All this while the entrance to 696 is rapidly approaching. I notice that the traffic on the exit ramps is slowing down, significantly, so I do the same. Cowboy over to my right failed to notice this, because he was still blowing me kisses, and of course he flew by me and slammed into the rear end of a poor, unsuspecting gentleman in a Saturn -- who looked thoroughly displeased when I drove by, jaw agape, seconds later.

Cowboy did notice at the last second that he was going to hit someone, and had laid on his brakes pretty good, but I estimate that he was still going about 50-55 mph when he hit the Saturn. Totaled the back of that poor man's car. Probably caused a major back up on the exit ramp (since that is a busy area of the highway, at any time of day, let alone late afternoon on a weekday). And all for what? To try to get some play from a strange girl in a separate vehicle while going 70 mph on the interstate. I was reminded of something my mom once said when a similar situation (minus the accident) occurred while we were in the car together: she looked over at the trucker who was gesticulating in her direction and said, "Give it up man, we'll never meet!" Then I accelerated and we left him behind us.

Who Gets Summoned for Jury Duty on Her Birthday??

Me. That's who. What a way to celebrate #26. BOO!

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So a. margarita tagged me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger and I must pass the torch to 5 other girl bloggers, except that I only have 4, and one of them is a. margarita. I will add a fifth when I find one. Here's my list, in no particular order:

1. a. margarita
2. Aubs
3. Nik
4. Leah


Ladies, now it's your turn to tag some other kickass girl bloggers. Spread the love!

Homeslice

I gotta say, I miss my homeslice Nikki. (Do we not look super cute in this picture? That's a rhetorical question by the way, no comments necessary.) This was before going to Memphis Smoke on Friday, where we were hit on by some really ridiculous men in their mid 40s -- I mean, seriously -- and then we went with Linda to a midnight screening of The Goonies at the Royal Oak Main Art Theater. That movie was always funny when I was a kid, but it was even better with a mild buzz going .

I am fortunate enough to have some AMAZING women in my life as friends. Unfortunately for me, most of them no longer live in Michigan, but whenever we do get in a chat or a visit, it always feels like no time has passed. It's empowering to have such awesome women as my friends. They inspire me to be strong, be smart, take chances, stand up for myself, and learn from my mistakes. I know that with all of my friends I can really be myself -- honest-to-goodness, occasional goofball, non sotto voce, cries at sappy movies, strange toed, always 10 minutes tardy Maria.

I Love Dane Cook!

Dane Cook.

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What's A 20 Something Girl To Do?

I've decided to let the stress go. I spend entirely too much time stressing about my job that I dislike, my student loans, my future... stuff like that. I'm done. If I don't get a job that I actually like by the time that school starts then I am going to quit and become a full time student. I can defer my loans and still make payments on them, so I won't have to worry about that. And as far as The Future goes, I can't control it, so it's better to just let it be. Hanging out with Steph and The Bridesmaid's yesterday, talking about life, I noticed a recurring theme. It may be cliche, but everything happens for a reason. You may not know exactly what the reason is at that very moment, but your old friend The Future will eventually roll around to clear it up for you.

We also discussed change quite a bit. Specifically, how people change, and, more specifically, how women try to change their men and when that is and is not OK. For example, we concluded that it is acceptable to try to break your husband's habit of picking his nose and wiping his boogers on the edge of the driver's seat in your brand new car. That's a good change to encourage. But the fundamental things, morals, religion, politics, responsibility, whether or not he is just a total slob -- things like that are pretty fixed. And if you do try to change something major, what happens if you change something else unintentionally? People change constantly, for good and bad reasons, but usually the changes that turn out to be improvements are those that came from within. You change because you want to, and that is probably something that will actually last.

Right now I am in a place where a person that I love, very much, is trying to effect a big change in his life. I believe in him, and I want to encourage him because I think he's doing it for the right reasons, but I don't know how much I believe that it's going to last forever. Part of me feels like a bitch for having that doubt, but that doubt is honest, and I always prefer honesty. The only experience that I can speak from is my own, and I know that when I've come to those few monumental transitions in my life that I've changed in ways I never could have predicted. Even relationships that I thought were stable and strong before leaving ended up cracked and broken after coming home.

That is a situation that is going to require much more thought. I just had to get Paris Hilton off the top of my page. I sincerely apologize that I left her up there as long as I did. My occasional schadenfreude sometimes gets the better of me. It's like doubt in that way.