2001-06-11
Almost got in an accident, posted at 9:58 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com My heart is still racing.At training today, I was driving three of my supervisees over the park for our afternoong of BBQ-ing and softball. I guess I was looking at street signs or something, because I was approaching an intersection when the guy in the passenger seat shouted, "Woah, woah, you're gonna hit it!". I slammed on my breaks and skidded bad. I missed the minivan by about a foot. Scary scary scary.
About 30 seconds later, a police officer who had been at the intersection turned on his sirens. Shit. My heart was fluttering and I was real nervous. I was with three of my supervisees, and they had just met me, which made it even worse. Here I am trying to apologize to them for almost killing them, then a cop pulls me over.
He checks out my insurance, my license, and my registration. He calls in the info for what seems like eternity. He returns to the vehicle and !doesn't give me a ticket!. I was pretty damn happy. I don't know what the ticket would have been for. I wasn't speeding or driving recklessly, I just *almost* rear-ended a minivan. Are there tickets for "almost got in an accident"? I had never heard of that before.
While I was pretty excited not to get a ticket, I got a little peeved when he told me the reason he had pulled us over: "You almost rear-ended that guy back there, then I saw you guys chuckling about it. I didn't think it was very funny. Somehow I fail to see the humor in almost getting in a vehicular accident." Okay, when I'm nervous, I laugh. It wasn't that I wasn't taking the near-accident seriously - I was just really nervous and exhilirated that I wasn't stupid enough to hit the minivan, and that's how I respond to certain situations like that. I laugh. So I got pulled over for chuckling.
I was actually pretty suprised I didn't get a ticket, though, for another reason. Of the 60 people I am supervising this summer, 58 are African-American. So the three folks I was driving are African-American. I'm no idiot; I know that I'm much more likely to not get a ticket as a white man than a Black man. That I didn't get a ticket is either a testament to this police officer, or a testament to the fact that I was driving rather than one of my passengers. Perhaps, at least.
Also, I didn't have to pull out the "my dad is a state police officer" card. This is not an actual card, but rather something you try to slip into a conversation when a police officer is going to give you a ticket. Not that I'm an expert, by any stretch. I've been pulled over twice in my life - once for speeding about three years ago and once for having expired license plates that same summer. In the latter incident, my license plate said 8/98 - it was August 28 - the cop took the time to follow me, call in, determine my b-day was August 15, and then pull me over - isn't that just looking for trouble? No ticket though. In the former incident, however, I was pulled over for speeding, and also did not have my insurance papers in my car. I had some that had expired a few months previously, and have never missed a payment, I just had neglected to bring in the updated card when I received it in the mail. The woman had clocked me going 47 m.p.h. in a 25 m.p.h. zone on campus, which was dumb dumb dumb of me. My excuse is that I had literally just gotten my car back with a brand new engine which was a lot quieter than my old one, and this was about 500 feet into my first time driving it and I didn't know how fast I was going. That didn't really jive with her, unsuprisingly (although it was all true). Anyhow, the fact that I was going almost double the speed limit and didn't have timely insurance made it a double whammy. Also, I had Maggie Estep on the CD player, and she was swearing, but I didn't realize it was on until the officer was talking to me for a bit. So not a good situation. Anyhow, she was quizzing me on whether in fact my insurance was paid up in full, and I didn't realize she could just call in that info. I was very visibly nervous, and knew a ticket would absolutely suck. I didn't see any other option. So I said, "Believe me, my dad is a police officer. He would never let me drive without insurance." That threw her a bit. I showed her his card. She still gave me a stern talking to, including a "If I see you driving like a maniac any more on this campus, I'm going to give your dad a call", but no ticket. I felt dirty for doing it, but lucky. I feel like have a cop as a parent leads to some tough times in high school (ask my sister), so I tried to justify it by saying that the profession owes me one. But, in reality, it sucked. I still feel bad about it. So I was really glad that it didn't even have to come up today.
When I finally got to the park, I was a bundle of nerves, all jittery and nervous. My supervisor yelled at me for something unrelated, which put a damper on my whole evening. I don't respond well to getting yelled at, especially in a fragile emotional state. He didn't know that, so I'm cutting him some slack. But it wasn't a good start to the summer. However, while I was writing this, he called me and thanked me for today, so I know he knew it affected me and he was trying to better the situation. I'm glad. Things won't be weird tomorrow. He's the kind of supervisor who is always, always over the top, and I'm pretty low key. Therefore, even though his enthusiasm is contagious in me, we don't always mesh as well as we'd both like. I think things will be okay, though. The problem is that after last summer, we may be too used to each other.
All in all, I'm feeling very lucky today. I probably deserved to get in that accident today. I didn't deserve the ticket, but I'm lucky I didn't get one. Good things do happen.
Random note: I registered my site over at Sitemeter.com (Thanks, GarbanzoBean !) basically so I could see what google searches are hitting my page. So far, I've gotten "middriff", "Of Mice and Men Mock Trial", and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." Not very exciting, I realize, but it's only been two days since I did it. And I have 56 hits! In two days! Woah! There are a bunch of folks reading! Either that, or I accidentally screwed something up. But either way, it's way more than I thought. I'm excited, and a little overwhelmed. This is such an odd form of communication. For example, after the last week after she put up her diaryland, I feel closer to my friend Langoki than I have since I was in high school. I'm not really sure what this means about us (I'm talking everyone now, not just the two of us), that we spend so much time reading each others' diaries on-line. It's so... odd. I'm not evaluating, just commenting. I know I rush right to my buddies list every time I sit at the computer to see which of the 20 or so people whose lives have enraptured me has updated since the last time I was sitting there. Very very interesting. And 56 folks are looking at mine in only two days. Wow. That's all I've got to say. Wow. Thanks. You all know more about me than some of my best friends do.
By the way, is the page loading up much slower since I put the sitemeter.com rainbow thing on it? Or is it just me? I'm debating whether I should take it off, even though it's fun.