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I'm taking my motivation today from Their Eyes Were Watching God, just adapted to me. Instead of, “She sent her face to Joe’s funeral and herself went frolicking with the springtime across the world” (88), I'm saying, "She sent her face to work and herself went frolicking with the springtime across the world."
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| Taken by Claire behind my house yesterday. |
I'm sure you've all seen this picture making its rounds. If not, congratulations. Be amused. Or confused.
I was surprised to find that while I was in Utah recently, during a one-hour drive, no less than five cars whose drivers saw me approaching in the passing lane moved over to the lane to the right, and even used their blinkers.
California traffic makes me crazy. I've never been a big fan of commuting, but in California it is soooo
bad. Both directions are slow, and even the carpool lane is no
guarantee. You will never get anywhere as quickly as the Google Maps instructions think you will (though the traffic congestion colors can be helpful). Also, heads up--the fact that almost every single light in Cali has a green turn arrow as opposed to the yield-on-left-turn light that exists in Utah makes so that every light will take you forever, and if you miss a turn off, you add another fifteen minutes to your drive as you will have to flip a U-ie twice (unless you want to drive over a huge Garden of Eden-type median), thus waiting through another two lights. Good luck with that.
Though I do my own head shaking at people who honk and flip the bird, there are times when I understand completely why someone might do that. One such annoyance comes with the freeway carpool lane. The picture above is incomplete where it comes to carpool lanes. Some people think that carpool lanes are another passing lane. This idea is so prevalent that the real passing lane gets the short end of the stick and I end up being stuck behind cars going five below the speed limit. (In case you don't realize what I mean, five below the limit is a problem, as is the fact that they don't get out of the way when they see someone faster coming up behind them). Carpool lanes can be useful, but they are on the wrong side of the freeway! Think about it. If you need to get off the freeway, you have to get a bunch of people who are mad because they're not moving as you have zoomed past the last eight hundred cars to let you over. Same goes for getting onto the freeway. I think having the carpool lane on the right might be a good move. Or maybe there should be two carpool lanes with their own exits and entrances so that it would be still possible to pass on the left.
Also, the left lane should be clearly marked as the passing lane, which means THAT YOU SHOULD MOVE IF SOMEONE BEHIND YOU IS GOING FASTER (THIS IS WHERE YOUR REARVIEW MIRROR COMES IN HANDY). No matter if that person is going 100 miles an hour and clearly breaking the law--you are breaking the law if you do not let them pass (did you know that?). Get out of the way. That's why the German Autobahn works more smoothly than American freeways even with only two or three lanes--because people understand that you drive in the right lane and pass in the left. So in other words, I repeat, if someone is tailing you in the left lane, move over to the right. You are welcome to get back over into the passing lane to pass a slowie in the right lane once that fast car is gone, but be ready to move over again if necessary!
On the flip side, if you are the fast guy and there is a slowie in front of you, please don't give in and pass on the right. You are ruining traffic and teaching people that it's okay to drive (slowly) in the passing lane. I fully invite you to (somewhat safely) tail until the slowie gets the hint. Or even honk if you're that brave. Sometimes I even think we need words to appear backwards on our windshields that say, "Please move over to the right." Again, signage and some nationwide ads about safety should do wonders to improve the current situation.
I recently read a complaint made by a Utahn about how the speed limit shouldn't be raised because then people will still go ten miles per hour over the limit. The writer complained that angry people tail him in the carpool lane. Two thoughts: as long as the carpool lane is going to be the far left lane, people are going to treat it like a passing lane so you should realize that and react accordingly (if possible--sometimes those danged white lines make moving over an option that will make you the law-breaker), meaning that if you are going to drive slow, the carpool lane is not going to benefit you or anyone else and you should get over. Also, your responsibility isn't to monitor other people's speed--it's their own responsibility, and if they make a decision that you view as irresponsible, then your best reaction is to get out of the way so you don't get in a crash!
More advice: make sure you merge onto the freeway at a speed similar to freeway speeds. If you're going to go any speed under the speed limit, stay in the right lane, unless you're going to go ten miles per hour or more under the speed limit: then stay off the freeway (as a kind stranger explained to my grandma on the freeway many years ago). Use your blinker for goodness' sake! Often people who don't blink claim
that no one is behind them. But when there's one lane between us and we're both thinking of
switching lanes, if we don't have the benefit of each other's blinkers, we might
just crash. I think that even if it's 3 AM and there's no other car for
miles, you should still blink. Don't get offended when someone honks. The horn is there to warn or remind and I think we're sometimes a little too afraid to use it the way it was meant to be used. When in a non-passing lane, let people in when they blink.
This piece doesn't apply to Utah, but in California where people on motorcycles are allowed to pass on the right in the same lane, please get over to the left of the lane to give them some assurance (I saw one guy who would thumbs-up anyone who moved over to make his commute safer).
Also, I think driving laws and signs should be unified across the world. That way there would be less scary international tourist drivers everywhere you go. And by the way, this includes the opinion that we should switch to kilometers per hour and the like. I think people should live closer to where they work so they can bike or walk or take public transportation to work. (I think public transportation should be amazing in every city.)
Whew, alright, I think I've covered the main items that have been bouncing around my head. Anything I've missed?
People seem annoyed with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's decision to get a tutor for their kids, but I think it's because they're jealous. They're jealous that they can't afford the same for their kids. They're jealous that they didn't get that kind of treatment. They're jealous of the person who has enough training so he or she can fill the position. (Oh, and as for that bit about the kids being too young to work on other languages, pshaw! Young is when you really learn languages. Everyone knows that and I wish I'd had that luxury.)
I'm certainly jealous. Every time I read a Victorian novel and see how kids were educated at home by people who stayed by their sides for years, I think how that would be so ideal. I guess letting the classes even out a bit has ruined that for most of us.
Now, if I had enough money, these would be my requirements. The tutor I hire would need to:
I can dream. What else should I add to my list?
My friend Tanya recently blogged a wish list. She's the best gift giver I know and she even impressed me with the gifts she wished for for herself. I'm probably the worst gift giver, and what do you know--I can't even think of something for myself. I've been searching my mind for ideas for my gift-givers, but so far I've been doing a really bad job of it, because the things I want are ridiculously expensive. Or just ridiculous. (I could request any one of several hundred books, but I'm a firm believer in libraries.)
But how about a Chris Volpe CD? (Love his sound.)
Or a new pair of Target moccasins? (Thanks, Lena, for introducing me to them--I love.)
What I really want is a 64 GB iPod touch (large enough to hold all my music). I've been kind of dying inside since I sold my iPod.
As long as we're posting things that are never going to become realities as Christmas presents, why not add the MacBook Pro (13" or 15"? I can't decide) that would hold all my files and that I've been lusting after for two years now (though I'll probably just end up running my MacBook into the ground)?
Or a magical cure for all physical ailments/new wrists?
Basically I just like this:
Because I can use it for life. But who uses real money these days anyway? (Ha ha. I guess everyone thinks that gift cards are more acceptable gifts than cash, though I'm not sure why, since gift cards can't be used everywhere, and isn't the point that the receiver gets what he or she wants or needs?)
Okay, okay, I know my wishes aren't realistic, though there are kids half my age who get similar things and more. So why not just some of the following?
Kinder Riegel?
A dress made of Lindt milk chocolate truffles? (There had better be something underneath those chocolates, or we're in big trouble in a big hurry!)
I think I asked for one of the following for 12 straight years of my life. Yeah, you'd think I would have stopped hoping a long time ago. Nope. Bernese Mountain Dogs=Michelle with a melted heart. Don't you just want to give him a squeeze?
Milka Noisette bars? Drool.
My own hermit hut in the Swiss Alps with a free-of-charge anonymous deliverer and picker-upper of library books to my heart's content?
Duplo?
Someone who could make me look like Alexis Bledel every day of my life?
Or how about some new running shoes to burn off all those chocolate bar calories, since my shoes seem to have disappeared, never to return? Forget that. I'll never go running if I don't have an iPod. Not worth it.
The perfect boyfriend? (No subject for an image exists. Nor does the image for a perfect girlfriend, so don't get mad.)
Feel free to use the comments to dubs what you're going to get me. Bwa ha ha.
Meh. A gift card. Just go with the gift card.
