Thursday, April 07, 2005

The Red Light Means "STOP," you BLEEP-ing BLEEP!

I took a great class called Psychology of the Lifespan as a prerequisite for my nursing program. For the most part, this was like being in group therapy for a semester. Our professor was a practicing therapist, and she got the ball rolling each class by teaching us about a different part of the lifespan, and then those of us who were outspoken (and no one should be surprised to hear that I was one of them) posed to her questions about our lives and relied on her to tell us if we were "normal." If I ever break down and go to therapy, I am calling her up because this woman was GOOD! I can't imagine I could find anyone I would rather share my deepest, darkest secrets with. And really...couldn't just about anyone benefit from a little therapy?

But I digress. My real reason for sharing this is to have a good segue into my discussion of my TYPE-A PERSONALITY. We took a little quiz in class one night to illustrate to us whether we were the calm and mellow type-B or the more high-strung and high-energy type-A. I went down the list of type-A indicators, nodding my head in agreement to each one, until I got to the one that said, "When I feel aggravation toward another driver, I yell or curse out loud in my car" (that's my loose interpretation of what it said...I really can't remember the exact words). And at this one I stopped and thought, "Huh...I don't do that." So I was mostly type-A, with a little bit of calmness thrown in when the going got tough on the road.

No more than two hours later, I got in my car for my half-hour drive home. I got on route 78, which is a popular route with the truckers, and I headed east toward Bethlehem. I had been on the highway not five minutes when someone cut me off. "You BLEEP-ing BLEEP! Learn how to BLEEP-ing drive!" Huh...looks like I didn't miss out on that one type-A trait. It turns out that I just curse so much in the car that I had stopped being aware of it.

Now that I am aware of it, I will tell you two things. The first is that I am a potty mouth. I do a good job of keeping things under control when I am out in "public," but put me behind the wheel, and I start using all those words that a "lady" would never use (although that's a topic for a whole other post someday). And second, drivers here in Pennsylvania SUCK! I realize it is like this elsewhere as well...we aren't the only ones who take our lives in our hands (or more accurately, place our lives in the hands of others) everytime we hit the road. So just a reminder for everyone...green means "go" and red means "STOP." If you see a girl in a purple Saturn muttering to herself after she has watched you run the light YET AGAIN, don't be afraid. It's just me and my type-A personality, saluting you and your bad driving.

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