This morning I was extra groggy for some reason. I slept like a brick last night. And slept through my first alarm this morning! (I always set 2 because I am a paranoid freak with a tendency to shut her alarm off during the night without waking up). So when the second one sounded, I barely had enough time to wash my face, get dressed and walk out the door. If I were a cartoon I would have grabbed a couple toothpicks to prop my eyes open with. That's how groggy I was.
So I leave my neighborhood and pull out onto the main strip. It's early and it's actually quite nice outside so my window's open. I'm sitting in a turn lane waiting for the green arrow, wondering if I had enough time for a quick nap before it changed. A car pulls up next to me and I hear a click.
I recognized this sounds as doors locking on a car. Immediately I look around to see where the carjacker was so I could avoid him. But there was no one around. So I figured this person was just locking his doors to lock his doors. I looked over at the driver, which is weird for me because I never do that. Especially when my windows are open and I'm stopped. I think I mentioned it before, but I have a thing with getting shot. I don't want to do it. And there are freaks on the road so I don't take that chance. Although I was the first one at the light (the only one in my lane) so in this situation if I needed to speed off to save my life, I could.
But apparently I was feeling bold this morning because I made eye contact. I turned to look at this girl, maybe a couple of years older than me, staring back at me. I did a quick idiot check to make sure I wasn't doing anything embarrassing. I washed my face so I know I didn't have any dried up drool on my chin. My hair was pulled back into a ponytail so that wasn't doing anything funky. I wasn't talking on my cell phone, and I know I didn't make any jerk maneuver to cut her off or anything because I was just sitting at the light when she pulled up.
Then it occurred to me. She was locking her doors because of me.
I'm a pretty naive person when it comes to things like locking doors and stuff like that. I grew up in Frederick, MD, where we would have our front door wide open when the weather was nice, and the windows open to just the screens. Sometimes I would sleep in my basement with the door wide open and no screen in there! Since moving closer to Baltimore my husband has taught me to be somewhat more cautious, especially when driving. When we're in a bad part of the city, he'll reach over out of the blue to lock the doors. When I'm driving alone, especially at night and especially in the city, if I talk to him on my cell phone, he always asks if my doors are locked. I've never been the victim of a carjack but I know they happen. So I don't blame him for being cautious.
And I don't blame this girl either. But there was no one around. And we were in a safe neighborhood. And she was looking right at me.
It's like she was telling me Stay in your car, crazy woman. See me locking my doors? Don't mess with me.
Nothing happened. The light turned green and we both drove off. I didn't even judge her for locking the doors while her windows were completely open and her car was the type where the locks are just inside the window and all you have to do to unlock them is pull up on the tabby thing. So if I wanted to, I could have reached over out my window, pulled her lock up and driven away, cackling maniacally at my cleverness. And there's nothing she could do about it. Unless she was carrying. In which case I would probably be dead. with a maniacal grin on my face.
Anyway so as I'm driving to work I'm thinking about this whole scenario and it strikes me as funny. I am one of the least intimidating people in the world. At least, I think so. First off, I drive a freakin Golf. It's not like I was in a Hummer or a pimped out Low Rider Honda with the windows tinted and the bumper and front left quarter panel a different color from the rest of the car. And I am the most average person in terms of looks. I'm 5'4" and medium build. Even though that's average height, I've recently discovered that many people think of me as short. There is nothing distinguishing or remarkable about me. I have a tattoo but it's on my ankle so there's no way she could have seen it, and even if she had, she'd be more curious about the significance of the cartoon bee wearing Doc Martens while standing on my birthday than intimidated by it.
I believe in vibes, too. I think a totally normal-looking person can send off creepy vibes. Maybe I was just putting out bad vibes. Although as the nmother of a two-year old I feel like my vibes are pretty much G-rated. Maybe I looked semi-deranged in my attempts to wake myself up and that scared her. Who knows?
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