... please get off the blasted phone? You almost caused a horrible accident.
What happened:
I was running a few minutes late for a doctor's appointment. Actually, I wasn't sure whether I was late or not because I couldn't remember if the appointment was at 8:10 or 8:20. But, even if I was late, I said to myself, it was no reason to be a discourteous driver, i.e. I was in line waiting for the light to change on Brookline's busy Beacon Street and a car to my right was trying to turn the corner into my lane. So...
I signalled for her to go ahead of me - and then I noticed that she was on the phone! We are all too familiar with my previous invectives about this dastardly behavior. Holding the phone to her ear. In Brookline. Which is extremely traffic-y.
OK. Without acknowledging my allowing her in, she floors it and cuts across into the left-hand lane. Rude, I think, and stupid (phone, ear, grumble) yet I proceeded on my way...whereupon SHE SPEEDS UP AGAIN AND CUTS RIGHT BACK IN FRONT OF ME. The only way to avoid rear-ending her was to veer sharply to the right, screech to a halt, and end up within an inch of jumping the curb.
Whereupon I jumped out of my car and confronted her (not that smart, in retrospect). What ensued: I shared my thinking (rather audibly) about driving and phoning to which she said, apologetically, "But I just saw my child and had to pick him up."
No reason to cause an accident, I said, and, I think, just possibly, that I mentioned her being on the phone three or four more times.
"Are you alright?" she asked. (My English teacher mother would correct that, by the way, as all right.)
No, actually, I'm not alright with people being so much in their Own Little Worlds that they put other people's lives in danger. In my family, we call this OLW.
PS: I wasn't late. The doctor was.
