Saturday, June 02, 2007

My boring life

A few days ago on my morning commute I was listening to this piece on NPR about a war widow who lost her husband last year in Iraq. She moved with her child to her late husband’s hometown in New Hampshire. She spoke about how she kept his memory alive and made quilts out of his shirts etc. It moved me to tears and I started crying. At the signal a car pulled beside me and the guy was staring at me with a very quizzical look. At that time I realized that it must be really strange to see a grown woman behind the wheel, dressed clearly to go to work but crying like a child. Maybe I am a petulant child who still refuses to grow up. Who knows? By the way, I hate commuting and would rather prefer telecommuting at least once a week. Given the soaring gas prices and the associated price hikes; in my opinion this would be an environmentally as well as an economically win-win situation.

Speaking of driving, I must tell you that people in Jersey even after the governor’s horrible accident and miraculous recovery, haven’t learnt their lesson. They still drive like maniacs. Just the other day I was driving to work when some idiot in a sedan changed lanes without looking and caused a pick up truck to drive off the freeway into the grass median separating the east bound and west bound traffic. Thank God it was a grass median and hence a very horrible accident was averted. I was an eye witness albeit at a VERY SAFE DISTANCE. I slowed down to let the poor guy enter back into the freeway, when the idiot behind me slammed on his horn. In case you are curious, I had gradually slowed down to 65 mph from 75 mph…IN AN 65 mph ZONE!!!!! Then the ass flips a bird at me and zooms off only to be stopped by the cops for speeding….AHHH SWEET REVENGE!!!! Being a daily commuter I kind of know where the usual hiding places are and there are a whole lot of them on that particular stretch. These days they don’t drive the typical cruisers, but instead I have seen a few SUV’s patrolling the highway. By the way the guy, who flipped the bird at me, looked like a love-child of Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump. In fact I am not even certain about the gender as it seemed very ambiguous….like the character in one of SNL’s sketches.

So then I got off the freeway on to the County roads with a posted limit of 50 mph. I was doing around 60 mph when I noticed a cop car make a turn and follow right behind me. I panicked and slowed down to exactly 50 mph and actually turned cruise control on, a function I seldom use! If you are driving through safe towns where the cops have nothing to do but hand out speeding tickets like they were going out of fashion, it makes sense to use cruise control. I am followed by the cop for at least 10 miles and then he makes a turn….YIPEEE.

Most of the times I am in the zone and talking to my husband, not anything romantic but mundane stuff like, “We need to clean up our place,” OR “We really need to cook these days,” etc., sometimes I am complaining about how things suck while other times he is complaining about how I suck, which makes me tell him how the whole world except him sucks! So this has been my life so far. How about you? Anything exciting you might want to share in the comments section…..please do….this way I can live vicariously through you.

7 comments:

FH said...

LOL @ *looked like a love-child of Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump*!!
Long time no see miss! EVERYBODY seems to be taking a break except your's truly.What the heck is wrong with me?!;D
You deserve a traffic ticket one of these days lady,for talking on the phone while driving and speeding!!!!BADMASH!!!;D
We have unmarked SUV traffic police too here,they are soo sneaky!!I keep on reminding Arvind to drive on Cruise control too all the time.He says 'why don't you drive then?'I do very safely,follow rules!:p
Kids have one more week of school and then they hang around me literally for 2 1/2 mnts!!HELP!!!Other than that life is as usual for us.May be a little vacation next mnt in Nashville and Memphis,not driving far like we usually do every yr.
Drive safe buddy and enjoy your weekend.Hugs:))

Dan said...

Being in NJ myself, I can attest to the craziness of the drivers. It's so bad on Route 80 that I avoid that road like the plague.

A cop was behind you for 10 miles!? My post from May 21st discusses this very phenomenon. I hate when that happens!

Sai said...

Hey Asha:

Enjoy your summer with your kids! Like my mother says children grow up too quickly.

By the way I talk on the cell but NEVER on busy roads and ALWAYS hands free and I seldom speed. If I were to follow the rules to the T in Jersey....I will be driven off the road because here you do defensive driving all the time. Here my instincts from my life in Bombay work and I am not kidding at all!

Sai said...

Hi Dan:

Yeah....rules in Joisey...forget about it ;-)

I just read that post of yours....as always hilarious. I just didn't want to be the 5000th comment hence didn't leave a comment.

Hope your mom's doing well.

karmic said...

Sweet revenge indeed @ the speedster being caught. Like you due to my frequent commute I kind of have figured out the standard lurking places. But state police in MD and DE also use non standard looking unmarked cars. So one does have to be careful.
I can attest to your feelings due to the long commute, as I have one too.
Take care of yourself, enjoyed reading your post.

NainaAshley said...

Good to have you back! Enjoyed the post.

Sai said...

Hey Sanjay and Naina Ashley:

Thanks a lot! I do miss blogging too.