Okay, so that's a loaded title. HAHAHA! Let's start with the Thanks A Bunch part and then I can tell you my story... Yes. I have a story to tell today!
First, a card!
I created this card based on the August Sketch from
The Craft's Meow. I just love the sketch and had a lot of fun using three different The Craft's Meow Stamp Sets. I used
Lovely Labels 14,
Stitched Flowers, and
Stitched Sentiments.
And here is the sketch that it came from.
I am also entering this in the
Focal Point Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I feel like all elements in this card come down to that right hand corner of focal point cuteness!
I fussy cut the fern so that I could have it partially behind the frame and then pop it out to really stand out on the front of the card. I love doing this with fun frames on cards! The beautiful ribbon is
May Arts.
And now, for the story. Road Rage. I now know just how real it is, as last night we ended up at the Police Station after becoming genuine victims of a road rage incident. For reals, you guys. WICKED CRAZY SCARY STUFF!
Here's what happened...
We were on our way from Target to the pizza place to pick up a pizza we ordered for dinner. We exit off the highway (The new area where we live is ALL ABOUT the highways - they are everywhere and pretty much super necessary to get around.) and move onto the on ramp. All of the sudden there is a Honda Accord about two inches from our bumper. And that might be generous! This guy was REALLY close! So close, I actually said to The Hubbums, "Wow! That guy is like crazy close to you right now!" While looking I could see his hand waving and gesturing out the sunroof. I couldn't see it, but The Hubbums said that his OTHER hand was doing the same out the driver's side window...leaving exactly ZERO hands on the wheel of the vehicle, which, mind you, is still two inches from our bumper.
So...that's pretty scary to begin with. Sean continues to drive at appropriate speeds for the road we are getting onto. The guy starts SCREAMING from his car - I have no idea what he was saying, as our windows were up and, quite frankly, I don't think I want to know what he was saying. Then, once we are on the road, something hits our rear window (The Hubbums drives a Mini Cooper.). He had thrown something at the car. No clue what it was, but it hit the rear windshield and made a thunking sound. That was also very scary. Then the guy speeds up, comes up beside us and throws something ELSE - A soda bottle - full - at the driver's side. It hits the door. Thank GOODNESS the window was shut because I'm pretty sure he would have aimed from Sean's head! It left a rather substantial bottom-of-bottle-shaped dent in the door of the car.
So...at this point, this guy is extremely dangerous. He has verbally threatened us, well, at least, I don't think he was screaming really nice things at the top of his lungs. AND...he has proven an intent to harm. And, as I said, he threw that while passing us. Well, he wasn't content to just keep going at this point. And, I was already on the phone with 911 as he STOPPED his car in the middle of the road, blocking us from getting by (there was some on coming traffic so going around him would have been VERY dangerous at this point) and he GETS OUT OF THE CAR.
Yes. I am scared. I'm not going to lie. We had no idea what this guy was thinking at this point. He approached the car, screaming the whole way, and, ended up on MY side (the passenger side) of the vehicle where he proceeded to PUNCH the window beside my head. I was on the call with the Police at this point and I'm quite sure they heard just how concerned I was. Just say'n. He punched it hard enough that there was skin on the window this morning. For reals. Actually, thinking about it, I'm guessing his hand is in a rather substantial amount of pain this morning. That HAD to hurt! And I am REALLY glad I never even considered opening my window because with as angry as this guy was, I'm not convinced he wouldn't have hit me. Seriously, you guys...I don't even want to think about it, but it is/was so scary!
He got back into his car and then tried to BACK THE CAR into us. I know he was thinking he could say it was our fault for 'rear ending' his car, but at that point I was already talking to the Police, so they would have known exactly what happened. He kept moving his car forward and then backward again.
He progressed down the road a bit further, and, come to find out, we were getting closer and closer to the Police Station. The dispatcher on the phone gave me directions to the Police Station and we pretty much screamed into that parking lot. (Remember, we just moved, so we didn't know the station was there.) At that point, Sean had noticed flags and started driving toward them since that's usually a sign of some kind of authority. So, we arrived at the police station and the officers were on their way out the door when the other driver, who had conveniently passed the Police Station, decided to turn around and join us there! I thought for SURE he was history, so I was pretty surprised he followed us into the station parking lot!
He pulls up RIGHT NEXT TO US - driver's side, gets out of the car and immediately starts SCREAMING at the Officer! Well. That's one way to handle it.
He got all up in on officer's face right off the bat and that officer got all up in his face right back at him. Due to the screaming two more officers (two had originally come out to meet us) pretty much appeared out of nowhere to help deescalate the situation. At that point, we had four officers around, we were standing in front of the Police Station, every officer was fully armed and geared up (and I mean FULLY! We moved from the city to the burbs and I NEVER saw a Police Officer wearing as much gear as these guys were in the city! It was kind of weird, but at that moment, I was REALLY GLAD!). One very nice female officer came over to talk to us. She gave us a minute to stop looking all buggy eyed and asked what happened. Another officer, after calming the other guy down, asked the same of him. We never had to talk to him and I am REALLY glad about that. Our two cars were between us the entire time and he left several minutes before we did, which made me feel a bit more comfortable that he wouldn't follow us again, but I was still nervous. Heck...I was nervous driving to work this morning!
So...as it currently stands, we are waiting on the Police Report, but it looks like some kind of charges will be filed. We don't know what yet. We will have to go to court to tell our side of the story to get it all resolved and get the damage to the car repaired.
When asked why this all happened. Apparently he told the officer that we had cut him off on the highway. We didn't. If we did, we totally didn't mean to, but seriously...this guy didn't appear in the rear view mirror until we were already on the on ramp and he was suddenly two inches from our bumper.
AND...even if we had cut him off...seriously? This is how you react to that? I drive a LOT. I used to drive 100 miles a day to get to work and back (thankfully that is much less now! YAY!). If I assaulted people every single time I got cut off, I wouldn't have time to WORK, for goodness sake! That is simply not an acceptable reaction under ANY circumstances!
So...that's what happened. I'm writing it all down because I'll have to recount it again in court and I figured this was a good way to tell the story.
AND...Road Rage is real. It isn't a joke. I never knew it could be like this until now. This didn't happen in a city, a rough area, or any place that would be marked as dangerous...it happened in your average suburban American town - not far from the Police Station at that! Be careful out there and don't take these things lightly. I fear for what could have happened and I'm very grateful that this man wasn't armed with anything other than his vehicle and a couple of soda bottles.
Road Rage isn't a joke. It's real. And people can get very hurt or even killed. I was SO impressed with the defensive driving skills of my husband! I would have likely wrecked my car in that situation. It was NOT easy to evade this guy AND be slightly freaked out at the same time all while your wife is pretty much yelling into the phone at the emergency dispatcher trying to give them the location and 'play by play' action over the phone.
Be Safe.
Jingle Out.
