ALICE’S TRAFFIC REPORT
Happy little cars . .
You know what’s fun about driving? Hahaha. It’s horrible. People are assholes. And they own cars, and possibly machine guns, and they are all over the roads like fruit flies on dishes that maybe someone didn’t wash the last three nights. I would stop this whole driving thing, especially at the witching hour of 7 to 8 AM, but I have these Things I have to take to school. Some people call them children.
I also have something called anxiety, so things like say screaming, crying, and loud noises tend to make my nervous system short out, and it so happened that all of this happened this morning. It started around 6 AM when I woke up to my husband screaming through the bathroom door at my thirteen-year-old, who also has anxiety. And hormones.
So she totally responded to him, since she could hear clearly with both the radio and the shower on full blast. Once she finally started getting the idea that Mr. Alice was soon to go nuclear, she got out, put on clothes, and unlocked the door. Haha, I’m just kidding. She freaked out and cried. Now my husband needed to get to work at a specific time, which was fast approaching, and his clothes were in the bathroom because of course he keeps his clean socks and underwear in that bathroom, even though we have our own bathroom in our bedroom, as well as things like a closet and drawers.
Somehow the door got opened and husband got clothes and out the door, whereas my teen stayed in the bathroom, with the door still locked, and the shower and radio still running, as she scream cried.
GOOD DAY, SUNSHINE!
I tried to get her out as well, to no avail, at which point I did the right thing and beat down the door with a two-by-four. Actually I laid under my weighted blanket as my heart rate attempted to go down to somewhat normal. Finally, she got out, and asked me to dry her hair. So the hair drying calm down only took like twenty minutes or so, during which time I tried stupid stuff like reason. Example: Hey maybe you should tell Dad when you’re taking a shower so he can get his crap out and not blow his top? Thing One also tried to help by telling moronic jokes as Thing Two twitched like a ticking time bomb. Anyway, the morning was going great considering I now at least didn’t have to get to work at the same time as my kids. It didn’t change the traffic so much though, which was what I was getting to, right?
I came up with the master plan of dropping Thing One off at the high school and then offering to get Thing Two a biscuit from McDonald’s which used to be a very easy, and cheap, fix. We got to McD’s and oh crap, they decided to block off the second lane most of the way so I couldn’t just bypass the other cars in a line and cut in front of them. This sounds like I’m just being an asshole, but it also keeps the line of cars from drifting out onto the highway, so technically I was helping. Not this time. Thing Two saw that we had only 10 minutes and decided I should just take her to school before time ran out and the teachers got together to sacrifice her to the administrative gods for being late which is really not much of an exaggeration because school is like some other universe.
Warning: 100% chance of foul language and caps lock
So we get close to the junior high and I forget for a second that I have the yield and the other guy has the stop, which was why she wasn’t moving, so naturally the person behind me HONKS THEIR FUCKING HORN. HOOOOOOOOONK goes the horn, and BAMMMM goes my heart which had just gotten into a normal goddamn rhythm thanks so much. I yelped in surprise, and hit my gas, and we got out of there so that the freak behind me could get to wherever she was going, which I’m hoping was straight to Hell.
Extreme? Yeah, try having anxiety and hearing a loud, sudden noise while operating large machinery. I will say that road rage is a very bad no-no and you certainly should not get out of your car and shoot a missile launcher (Second Amendment!) at the other car and laugh ecstatically as the car bursts into an enormous ball of flame. That would be wrong.
Did someone just honk?
Still, it seems to me that the horn is mostly for use in an emergency, such as another car is about to hit you, or someone has a missile launcher aimed at you. It is really not for use because someone made you wait a half second at a stop. So fucking CUT IT OUT cause you don’t know what is going on in in the life of the person whose car you honk at, or what weapons said person might be carrying because this is Texas, and even dentists carry guns.
I did get Thing Two dropped off at school, and I even got a hug, cause I know how to drop her the proper distance away from the building. I decided I’d go back to McDs cause I DID deserve a break today and they DO have sausage biscuits and a hash brown for $1.50 which even I can afford. So all was well until, guess what you will never guess! Another car honked. This time it wasn’t at me, I’m fairly sure, it was one of the cars that was blocking the way. Not sure who honked at who, but they got moving away from me, and I was finally able to get home.
I can’t wait for tomorrow!
~ Alice
aliceatwonderland 
Dearest Alice. I’m sending hugs and prayers and all of my anti-anxiety magic, because even though I got to skip the scream crying hormonal years (well, not skip the years, just not actual parent so that piece of difficult teenage girl stuff not applicable), I know the stress and anxiety and fucking honking while operating machinery that sends you out of your skin. I also know you are a really amazing mother. ♡
Thank you, Ruby, so much. 🙂 I hope you are doing okay.
I reckon car manufacturers should swap the switches/buttons/levers for horns and indicators and not tell anyone. It would mean the people who never indicate but always honk would (for a time) end up indicating instead of honking… Wouldn’t that make the world a happier place?
Traffic sucks majorly, no matter where you are in the world, it would seem.
At least in the USA and the UK most people generally actually abide by the vague traffic rules like which side of the road to ride on and having headlights that work and so on. I dread to think about driving in somewhere like India or Vietnam!
Oh wow, yeah I know. Or driving in a big city for me. I live in a fairly small town. We have a university, so we have more than most towns like say a Super Walmart and some restaurants. (oooh) Also the population has exploded over the last couple of decades, so there are SO MANY CHILDREN and each one seems to own his own SUV. Also there are people commuting from the town to the cities south and north of us so – it’s a mess in the morning.
I like your idea about switching the indicator haha. Hey what’s that light – oh, guess I should go now. Person glares angrily but mutely. 😀
I really don’t get the whole SUV thing. Unless you actually drive off road, live on a farm, tow a caravan or have more than 3 children then they’re a bit pointless. Especially as quite a few of them are useless off road!
Yeah, usually the owner has two or fewer children, never drives off road (unless they stick a Target in the boonies) or hauls anything. There are fewer at least with the rising costs of gas, yet there are still many pickups here in spite of the poor gas mileage cause TEXAS. My husband has one – he does at least haul things sometimes.
Seems like TEXAS explains a lot of things.
Aw, Alice, I’m sorry you and Thing Two had such a rough morning! You of all people should know better than to try and reason with anxiety. It’s like trying to reason with a Tea Party Republican. So I won’t waste time on what honking means to the non-anxious general driving public. May all the horns be silenced in a thousand yard radius around you henceforth, unless and until the sound is necessary to alert you to genuine impending disaster!
Thank you! Faith reasoned we should switch their horns with blinkers, which I also approve of, especially if I get to see their faces the first time it happens.
Lol, yes reasoning with Tea Partiers – wait are these guys also Trump supporters or is this yet another group or morons?
Have you considered nudging Thing One to get her license so you can make her drive herself and Thing Two to school? Like my parents made me do, ha!
I wish. She seems in no big hurry to drive – kind of like how she prefers not to walk unless necessary. Luckily for her she has an amazing metabolism. Will get to it eventually. At least she’d only have one little sister to drive!
Of course having a kid on the road is excellent for anxiety, especially if she’s as dingy as my child . . . oh yeah we were too. Hmm.
I decided I’d go back to McDs cause I DID deserve a break today.
Fuck yes.
You certainly DID!
Dude, life is too short not to eat the bad things.