Requisite run selfie. The air in my office was hot, dry, and stagnant yesterday, so I felt like I was escaping prison to be able to get out and run a few miles on the greenway. I also was running with a belly full of holiday cookies – we’d thrown a holiday party for our clients and me, usually cool as a cucumber around office treats, totally lost it on a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Getting my feet to move after that was so difficult.

But I digress. Yesterday, I went to go have cocktails with a girlfriend who got married a year ago. I tell you what, there is no greater resource than a bride who’s been recently married. On my way there, I was feeling good, the endorphins were flowing, and I was in a great mood. I hit some rush hour/holiday traffic around a local shopping center. Still no big deal.

Let me interrupt this story to tell you a pertinent tale.  Years ago, I was in Manhattan with my dad.  The traffic there is obviously horrible and my dad pulled into an intersection without checking to make sure that the traffic on the other side would move, and by the time the light turned red, my dad was stuck in the intersection.  A cop was riding by at that moment,  pulled us over, and gave my dad a ticket for like obstructing the flow of traffic or something.  From that, I always understood that you waited to make sure that traffic would clear the intersection before you pulled through.

So back to yesterday.  Traffic was beginning to back up into the intersection, so I patiently waited for it to clear before I pulled through.  The woman behind me honked.  One thing about North Carolina, you don’t honk.  I gave her a look in my rearview, and assured myself that she had to see that the intersection wasn’t clear, and that we’d be blocking up traffic.  She honked again, and then started pulling around me to pull into the intersection.  And that’s when I lost it.  The left hand came up.  My voice rose an octave.  The New York in me came out.

“No. NO. NO.  THAT IS NOT HOW WE DO THINGS HERE!”

And she looked frightened.

“Absolutely not.  You get back where you belong!”

And she did.

I’m not sure what exactly came over me, but as I age (I’m 26) my tolerance for people’s rudeness gets smaller and smaller, and I’m a little more willing to stand up for what’s right – in this case, my right to avoid a ticket!

When was the last time you lost it in traffic?