Category Archives: poll

Am I Too Angry?

Here we go again:

So I’m driving back from the supermarket.  I come to an intersection.  I get in the far right lane.  The light is red.  On the other side of the intersection, roughly 2-3 car lengths down,  there is a bus parked in the far right lane.  The Volvo next to me starts to do that rev-the-engine-to-start-fast-off-the-line-so-the-guy-next-to-me-can’t-get-in-front-of-me-because-there’s-a-bus-over-there-in-his-lane rock back and forth.  Whatever.  So there is some traffic behind him and I know if I don’t beat him off the line I’ll be stuck for awhile.  So he’s rocking, light goes green, of course I beat him off the line and with more than enough space (I’m really not just painting this in a light that makes me look good, I really had plenty of space to get into his lane), I merge to the left because of the aforementioned bus.  Now this dude in his Volvo starts to hardcore tailgate me.  So I tap my brakes to back him off.  He backs off, but then right back on me.  So now I slow down to roughly 15-20 mph.  He backs off.  We pass another intersection and I’m about a half block from my turn into my apartment.  I get into the right lane and slow down a lot because it’s a pretty sharp turn into the lane to my apartment.  Now here’s where I admit I pulled a bit of a childish thing, but I turned and stared at the guy as he passed while I was slowing down to turn.  It’s important to know I had my blinker on in a proper distance to let people know I was turning in.  The Volvo passed me and about two car lengths down the guy stops short of the traffic, turns in his seat and is flipping me the bird.  I mean the guy looks late 30s, rolling the family Volvo wagon.  I can see he’s yelling too.  Emotions get the better of me and I eschew my turn and pull up next to him (he’s still stopped short of the traffic ahead of him to flip me off).  I stare him down hard and flip him off as well.  I had no traffic ahead of me so I kept going, albeit slowly, flipping him off, made a turn and then went back to my place.

So I ask you, Am I Too Angry?

New feature: Am I Too Angry?

So with a fair amount of frequency things happen to me that tend to annoy me to the point of anger.  Some are just absurd.  Some are legit.  And, admittedly, some are just me being ornery.  So when things happen, I’ll post the story and put up a poll and you tell me, Am I Too Angry?

Here is the first installment (second and third installments will be posted shortly):

A few weeks ago I was leaving work after a long day.  I was crossing the street in the crosswalk.  I saw this black Mercedez barreling down the street.  He had a stop sign, so I turned and crossed the street again (standard intersection, four way stop signs).  Rather than slow down because there was a pedestrian in the street, the guy sped up to try to pull a rolling “stop” and keep through the intersection instead of stopping at the stop sign and letting pedestrians go.  So I had to literally jump back to keep from getting hit by this car.  The guy did his rolling stop.  As he passed I slapped the back of his car (rear fender) hard with an open palm.  I continued to cross the street.  When I got to the sidewalk I looked back and saw that the Mercedez stopped in the middle of the intersection and the guy was yelling at me through his window.  I didn’t hear what he was saying because I was listening to my iPhone.  But he was yelling, so I yelled back “What?!  Fuck off man, there was a stop sign, I was fucking in the street!”  Of course I threw my hands up in the “What? You want some?” pose.  He fucking got out of his car.  Older white guy, probably early to mid 40s.  He was yelling some more.  I yelled back “Fuck you man!”  Turned and kept walking.  I was about a half block to the subway and was praying that he’d turn around and come yell at me some more so I could unload some vitriol on him.  So I ask you: Am I Too Angry?