Can't I just get some Cheesecake Bites?

One of the girls at work comes in early this afternoon, and decides she's going to make a run to Tropical Smoothie. She goes around the restaurant and asks everyone if they might won't anything. I graciously decline. I'm not much of a smoothie person. Don't get me wrong; occasionally I like to add a little pizzazz to my life and get a smoothie when one of the girls goes, but usually I remember that I'm straight (sorry Jeff). Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make. Why is it that whenever I decline to partake in the fun and excitement of Tropical Smoothies, I'm looked upon as though I have three heads? Not everyone likes smoothies, folks. Not everyone likes Starbucks, either. I appreciate being asked, of course, and if you're going to Panera or Chick-Fil-A or Sonic (they really need to bring those cheesecake bites back), then I'm game. I shouldn't, however, have to get a smoothie because everyone else is getting one. I will not be a slave to conformity. I will not drink smoothies just to fit in. If I want one, I'll get one. If I don't, please don't look at me like I just killed your dog or slapped your grandmother. Oh, and don't call Jody. ;)

Channeling my inner Chuck Norris

I was going to write about a completely different subject, but maybe I'll come back to that tonight. Something interesting happened to me on the way home. I had picked the kids up from the busstop and I was leaving the neighborhood when I came upon another school bus stopped in front of me, coming the opposite way. There was a car stopped in front of me, and the mailman was half-way into the street, turning right off of an adjoining street. While I'm sitting there, a white car (a Grand-Am from the late '90's, I think) pulls up behind the mailman at the stop sign. The schoolbus pulls off and the car in front and the mailman go ahead me. As I'm passing the white car, the driver decides to disregard the stop sign and try to jump ahead of me. This, of course, pisses me off because the car nearly ended up in my passenger seat. Naturally, I yell "Don't you see the stop sign stupid?!" I try very hard to refrain from cursing with the kids in the car. Anyway, at the red light leading out of the neighborhood, the white car pulls up beside me. Great, here we go. All of my windows are down, and so are all of his. The driver is a young black kid, maybe early 20's with a gold tooth and his hat turned backward. What he looks like is only significant because of what he thought it might represent to me. I could tell where this was going to go by the dialogue. He saw a white boy in the car and thought he might scare me by being tough. Anyway, here's how the conversation went verbatim(it was only 10 minutes ago):

Driver: "What did you say to me?"

Me: "I said 'Didn't you see that stop sign, stupid?'" (maybe I shouldn't have called him stupid, but I was a little steamed that he almost hit me, then stopped to question me, as though I disrespected him by yelling at him. Besides, he asked what I said, and that's what I said.)

Driver: "Yo, who do you think you're talking to?"

Me: "I'm talking to the guy who almost hit my car."

Driver: "Yo, you got a problem with me?"

Me: "I got a problem with your driving."

Now he gets out of his car. He's clearly not a threat to me, so I don't get out at this point. I think he was hoping I'd either roll up my windows and lock my doors so he could yell at me from a safe vantage point, or drive away. Sorry guy, I've had lots of black friends. Black people don't scare me. I could tell he may have started to come to this realization when he saw the brown kids in the back, because he never got closer than about 6 feet from my car.

Driver: "If you got a problem, why don't you step out of the car?"

Me: "Do you think this is cool to do in front of these kids? Are you some kind of tough guy?" Now I'm unbuckling my seat belt, and he visibly took a step back, maybe just to give me room to get out, maybe not: I don't know. "You don't want this kind of trouble, so I suggest you get back in your car before something bad happens."

He turns around as he saying "I just want to know if you have a problem with me." He looks back after he gets back around to the driver's side and gives me a dirty look before getting back in. Now, maybe it's wrong, but I got a small measure of satisfaction from his backing down. I also was surprised by two things. The first was the restraint I exhibited.

Now, I got into a few fights when I was younger, and when I'm threatened, my adrenaline runs high. I was never really cool under pressure, which is okay when you're in a fair fight with one guy. Here, I was clearly at a disadvantage, being that I was still in the car, and he was not. Ten years ago, I probably would have bolted out of the car to confront him and gotten kicked in the face before I could even get out of seat (at least that's what I would do if the situation was reversed). Also, when I'm angry, I curse alot, and that's usually when I start to lose control and my anger boils over. I have quite a temper. In this instance, however, I thought through a couple different scenarios of what I was going to do if I had to get out or he tried to get in. I guess the combination of having kids and being a restaurant manager has taught me patience and calm. Maybe that's part of getting older.

The second thing that surprised a me a little was the rage that I have inside me. I had a pretty good idea it was there, but not like this. I was just waiting, waiting for this guy to put me in a situation to defend myself. I already knew what was going to happen if he did, and it wasn't going to be pretty.

Now, I won't say I'm so angry that I'm going to go to the mall and start shooting people. It's nothing like that; however, I do on occasion wish someone would put me in a situation where I'm threatened and the law would be on my side when I pummel them. I guess it's just years and years of stress that I never talk about building up. Maybe I should take up boxing or martial arts. Actually, maybe T'ai Chi would be better.......I think this is also from having kids and being a restaurant manager.........

I'm losing the will to blog....

Well, that horrible loss to Miami didn't hurt much, as UVA has all but wrapped their first outright ACC regular season title since 1981. Unbelievable. I'm rooting for Appalachian State to win their conference tourney just for the remote chance at some veangence for the Puerto Rico disaster.

It's almost baseball season, so I've already drafted 5 fantasy baseball teams with 4 more drafts to go. I'm sure I'm not done either, since I love drafting so much. I'm such a nerd.....

Speaking of which, anyone else hear about the 33-foot, 1000-pound colossal squid that those New Zealand fisherman caught off of Antartica about 3 weeks ago? (1)At 33 feet and 1000 lbs, it is by far the largest squid ever seen by man, (2)It was an adult male, which no one has ever seen before, (3)It was still alive when they caught it. I find this fascinating; again, I'm a nerd......

I wonder if signing London Fletcher and Fred Smoot(eek) is going to be as good for the Redskins as losing Derrick Dockery is going to be bad. I used to really hate that guy, but he's made vast improvement. He's going to have a really nice career, though $7 million a year is outrageous.

I don't feel like talking about tornados, snow storms, bus crashes, or dead former NBA players so I'll leave with this from my Bush Quote Generator on my home page:



"We need to do what we need to do to get the bodies out of there, if they're there."

- George W. Bush February 14, 2001 Referring to the tragic sinking of a Japanese fishing boat by a U.S. submarine near Hawaii. Reported in the Chicago Tribune.

Oh, more nerd stuff; this is kinda cool: Non-Newtonian Fluids