But Maybe I Have More New Yorker in Me Than First Suspected

I've thought long and hard about posting this story because it's not exactly a NICE story and it's hard to imagine Pollyanna ever doing this...

But, you know, I'm all about keepin' it real here.

So, okay, my latest New York Driver Tease is to just be EXCESSIVELY polite in traffic. It makes me giggle.

You can just picture me, right? I let people into traffic with elaborate flourishes. When someone lets ME in (as if) I practically get out of my car to say thank you. I signal. I stop all the way at stop signs. I let the school buses go ahead of me--nothing freaks out the people in my neighborhood more than that.

Dudes, I'm like a Stepford Driver.

And the people up here do NOT know what to do about me and my good manners.

Witness the other day in front of Jane's school where I played this elaborate game of, "After you." "Oh, no, after YOU." "Oh, I INSIST. After you." with this guy in a little sedan. He could NOT figure out how I was planning to screw him over by letting him go first and it apparently short-circuited his brain.

Finally, he turned in front of me and as he passed me, he lifted both arms in total exasperation.

"A**hole," I said, angrily.

Wow, maybe I really AM becoming a New Yorker.

Comments

Lynn said…
LOL It doesnt take long before the natives rub off on you!
Anonymous said…
Your playing mind games with the rest of us NYers. It's not nice, but fun, I'm sure.
-FringeGirl
Barb Matijevich said…
No, No, I'm not making fun of New Yorkers --I'm just trying to see if good behavior is as contagious as BAD behavior. Because, honestly, I LOVE New Yorkers to pieces--EXCEPT when they're driving because I think they've gotten in the habit of thinking the rules don't apply to them.

And I only tell this story because I think it's funny that after doing something nice for someone, he flipped me off as if I'd done something BAD. And I, usually a live-and-let-live kinda girl, called him a foul name. It just struck me as kind of funny.
LizzieK8 said…
It's not just NY. Here in AZ I had a pedestrian flip me off and hurl racial epitaphs because I let her cross the parking lot to go into the store. Ya just can't please any of these people any of the time.
Anonymous said…
It was bound to happen. Now practice this, "You lookin' at me?!" BTW, people are just as rude in CT. It must seep over the state line.
Ei said…
He was trying to be nice to you and you ruined it for him. ;)