OK, that's it. I've had it!

...but rather than spontaneously combust all over the place, I will blog and get it off my chest. Then tonight I will meet L. for pizza and a beer. Seriously though... I am OFFICIALLY at my limits now.

I had a bad road rage incident earlier today while I was out after teaching a class at the bookstore down the street. I was on the phone, talking to L., and the 2 road lanes merged into one. I was in the right lane, just minding my own business, when this old white Buick behind me and to the left ignored the merging lanes and ignored that I had the right of way and came veering almost into my car so he could squeeze past like a total asshole!!! I couldn't believe how close he came to my car and I had to brake or we would've collided indeed. I was so incredibly pissed I leaned on my horn and shot the finger at him for about 10 seconds. I never do things like that b/c traffic morons are everywhere and as long as they don't hit you, it's best to just let them go. After all, it's their karma. But I am not in a mentally healthy state of mind these days, as we all know, and that was the last straw. So asshole pulled over to the right and opened his door. "Oh, good," I thought, "Let's get down! I'm armed!!!" (And I'm a much better shot, I guarantee.) I drove closer thinking I could at least squeeze past him, but he leaned out and looked at me. He was young, black and had gold teeth. I put my hands up like, "What???" He got back in his car and we moved forward. He moved in the left lane and I drove up past him to the red light. As I passed him I looked over at him. He had his window down and HE THREW SOMETHING AT MY CAR which hit and bounced off. Oh, that was it. I called HPD to report a road rage incident, ID'd myself as a sheriff's deputy, and started following him, giving the dispatcher his license and description. I followed him for a couple of miles to the freeway. He threw more trash out of his car behind him towards me. Then he pulled into a McDonald's parking lot. I stayed a little bit behind in case he did have a gun--you never know in Texas! He stopped for a minute, then reversed so we were side by side and rolled down his window; I rolled mine down. He said, "Why you followin' me?" I showed him my badge and told him he'd thrown something at my car and that I'd called HPD and they were on their way. He said he didn't throw anything at my car. I said yes he did, and he could either stay here and wait for HPD or he could run. He thought about it for a second, then rolled up his window and headed down the freeway feeder. I followed and dispatch called me back and I gave them our new location.

He headed toward the freeway ramp, but then changed his mind and stayed on the feeder and took the next right. By this time he was pretty far away and I was more calm and was losing my will to fight so I pulled over into a gas station and waited for the HPD cop to show up. While I was waiting a tow truck driver pulled up to me and asked if I was ok. I forget that all those guys have scanners and listen to everything! I said yeah and sent him on his way. The truth is I had called L. to give her an update and I was about to totally lose it. But I knew I had to be calm when HPD showed up so I sucked it up and stayed strong. When the HPD cop got there I told him everything, and he ran the car's license plate. It came back as being owned by State Farm, so there were a couple of things wrong there. In the end, he asked me what I wanted done, but there truthfully was nothing to be done at that point except to go looking for the guy, and HPD has better things to do since my car was not, in fact, damaged at all. The cop, who was an older man, kindly and nicely warned me about the hazards of flashing my badge like that, which I will not list here b/c I don't want to just give information like that out to everyone, and I realized I better take his advice in the future. I guess I was thinking that since it is a crime to flee when detained by a peace officer who witnessed you in the commission of a crime, they could do something about that, but like always, these things are so pick-and-choose.

Anyway, looks like I will not be seeing L. for awhile as she has a 1-way ticket away from here and is leaving next week, so I am going to meet her tonight at a pizza parlor that I have always wanted to go to. Although I hadn't planned on spending any $ on eating out this week--I better go b/c I've got to have at least one sliver of light in this current dark nightmare that is my life lately.

Ok, maybe it's not that bad. But I really don't know how much more I can take. I was thinking today though, after leaving the HPD cop, that someone possessing less fortitude than I have been gifted with would've snapped by now for sure. And all I've done to deal with it all is eaten lots of ice cream, cake, chocolate, and I had to have an Icee yesterday.