Rules of the road

Another day, another gripe.

Driving. It's a privilege. Some shouldn't have it. Or at least not until after they take a road etiquette class. Things that are acceptable and those that are not. Why is it when you put some people behind the wheel, they suddenly turn into Sloth from the Goonies, or Cruella Deville? Either they lose all common sense, or want to shoot you for going the speed limit.

For instance, I was cruising into work and I was going with the flow of traffic...which on this particular stretch of road tends to be like 15 miles over the limit. So, I was going on my merry way, and there's a guy in a "mid-life crisis look at me" car on my ass. How are my fumes tasting today, buddy? So, he remains on my ass until the car in the right lane passes me just enough for him to squish over and speed by me, then cut me off. And then I see him put his arms in the air and motion feverishly to the right...as in YOU NEED TO BE IN THE RIGHT LANE, YOU SLOW BITCH! Then he speeds up and lays rubber. All to get to the red light awaiting at the end of the road. I ended up right next to him at the light. Haha! That always makes me laugh. Why do people HAVE to drive so quickly, cutting people off on their way, just to get to a red light? They can't just calm down and stay behind you, considering they will be stopping shortly anyways? If I were going slow (at least my definition of slow), I would have gotten over to the right lane. But there was a van in my way, so I just stayed where I was, thinking that going 15 over would be sufficient. I guess 15 over is the new 10 under?

Another scenario: the right lane is ending. What do you do?! You are given adequate notice that the lane will be ending in a quarter of a mile...then the little arrows pop up to let you know you need to get over. It's not a subtle "get over in the next 13 feet or die!" notice. Or if there's construction, they put up the lovely, large, blinking arrows signaling that you need to get over...before you hit this sign! I see those signs, I get over. Others feel the need to remain in that lane as long as they possibly can before merging over. This is not the Italian Job or Gone in 60 Seconds, people. Get over! So they wait until the last 20 feet and then decide to cut you off and almost run into you in the process. Then they look at you like you're the ass because they waited until the last possible moment to get over, and then they almost cause a wreck.
People also do this when they are merging onto the highway. I get over if I can so the lane is open for them to merge. But sometimes, this can't always be the case. Sometimes I can't get over. So I either speed up to leave space behind me, or slow down so they can merge in front of me. But some people don't get the hint and like to stay even with you, and pretend you're blocking them on purpose. Here's a note: you don't have the right away, jackass! I don't owe you anything.

I wasn't done speaking

We all do it! Interrupt! And even though we know it's annoying when we do it, it's even more annoying when someone else does it.

Case in point:
I was on the phone with customer service. Irritating enough. On hold, passed to someone else, then again, on hold, then passed....ok, I'm already annoyed. Can I please speak with someone that knows what they're doing.

Ok, finally a human voice. But, a foreign human voice. Sounds like Ahmed or Jabib, possibly. "Hello, can I help you?" YES! I'm calling to follow up on a previously opened case. "Ok, what's the case number?" And I start to say it 6053... then he interrupts with an "OK" in the middle, leaving me to wonder if he's heard what I said. Do I stop or keep going? So I keep going. 873..."Hold on... 6053 WHAT? Start over again please." Because now that he's interrupted my flow, he's all confused about where I was going. If he had just been silent, and not said "ok" then he would have gotten the case number and I wouldn't have had to repeat myself 3 times, trying all the while not to sound pissed off.

And in the spirit of foreign customer service, look at this little blurb I received in an e-mail. It made me laugh, because well, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
Copy and pasted from my actual e-mail:

We have recived the above part at our ware house which was not belongs to the above RMA.Hence request you to kindly provide us an update on the request that the part belongs to which RMA?

WHAT??? Luckily, I possess a somewhat intelligent brain and managed to understand what it said, but seriously??? If you're going to work for America, please try to get our language right. Spell check and grammar check are the best inventions ever. Give them a try, please!