I May Have Overreacted

Today was a Day. The kind of day that has you needing a drink at 10:30 and ready to kill someone for a drink by 5.

It is safe to assume that I may not have been in the best of all possible tempers while driving home this evening.

That being said, I was merrily minding my own business on the drive crawl up Cahuenga this evening when I came upon the intersection at De Longpre.

It bears mentioning that this is a notoriously bad intersection. Because Cahuenga narrows and curves at this point, and because the entrance to Amoeba's parking is just half a block up, it's not uncommon to sit at this intersection for a full light cycle before actually getting to go through it.

It also bears mentioning that there is a fire station on the north west corner of the intersection.

As I pulled up, I saw that the lane was at a stop and that I would find myself sitting in the middle of the intersection if I continued onward. So, although the light was green, I stopped on the near side and waited for my lane to clear lest I "block the box."

That's when the woman behind me started honking.

Not a little "Hey, did you mean to stop there?" beep or an aggravated "Move!" kind of honk, this was an impatient, blaring hooooonk followed by an obnoxious and insistent hooooooooooooonk.

Anyone who has driven with me knows that I hate being honked at under the best of circumstances. When I am already cranky and am doing absolutely nothing wrong, I really loathe it.

The light turned yellow with no movement in my lane so I resigned myself to sitting through the rest of the light cycle. The woman behind me, clearly unahppy with my assessment of the situation, decided to voice her dissent by laying on her horn for all she was worth.

That's when I got out of my car and tapped on her windowr.

When she rolled it down a smidge, eyes wide as saucers, I spoke pleasantly:

Ma'am, I understand that you are in a hurry but, as you can see, traffic is heavy and our lane is at a complete standstill. Perhaps you've noticed that it's rush hour. It is not my goal to slow you down, I promise that I would continue through the intersection if there were space for my car on the other side but there isn't. I will not block the box, particularly when there is a fire station right there. Now please just settle down and be patient and I'm sure we'll all be moving shortly. Oh, and if you touch that horn again? I'm coming back here to break your fingers.

The sense of relief in this woman was palpable - I'm fairly certain she thought I was going to kill her.

As I got back into my car, the guy in the car next to mine (who had also stopped so as not to block the box) turned to me and started applauding.

Comments

[Val Trullinger]

good for you for holding the line at talking sternly to her. ;)

i get a lot of people who do the same thing to me at the intersection of veteran and lindbrook, where, oddly enough, there is also a fire station. so many clueless idiots don't leave the box open on veteran, that it often takes 2 or 3 signal changes before you can make a left. i love the sense of entitlement these morons have -- how dare anyone keep them from getting where they want to go?