Almost got pulled over on the way to work this morning. Was heading east on 40, right before the Wade avenue split into Raleigh, and traffic was moving unusually slow for some reason… The speed limit is 65, but cars habitually cruise along at 75-80 with nary a care. I was going to be a little bit late, 5 minutes or so, and since I open the store, this is significant. I was having a bit of trouble navigating through traffic; a minivan was squatting in the left lane, and flying in formation beside it was a nondescript pickup. There are four lanes, and I was in the third over. Trucks were slowing on the right, and I was getting more than a little frustrated with the situation, so I did something I don’t usually do: from the third lane, doing about 65, I got just ahead enough of the pickup and as close to the car in front of me as I dared, downshifted to fourth, put on my blinker (I get points for this, yes?), punched it up to 80 or so, and swung over two lanes into the left lane in front of the minivan. Ahh. Free and clear. Woops. A couple cars ahead of the pickup sits the reason everyone’s doing the speed limit: a cruiser. He’s got his window rolled down for some reason and has evidently spotted my little maneuver, since he’s making some sort of hand motions out the window. It looks like he’s motioning for me to pull in front of him so he can pull me over. Ohhh no, we’re not going to do that. He’d get me for speeding (past him, duh) as well as my sudden cut across two lanes. If he’s going to get me, he’s going to have to slow down, tuck in behind me, and get me that way. By the book. I’ll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs at 65 and see what he does. Well, evidently he had bigger fish to fry, or didn’t feel like dodging traffic while slowing down so he could pull me over, since his window went up, I slid cautiously over into the right lane and low-profiled it the rest of the way to the store.
Busy day, too, to top it all off. I’m pretty good at multitasking, answering the phone, doing the deposit, keeping track of the indicators for the day, answering questions, ringing customers up, etc, but every once in a while things get a little hairy. I was ringing up a gentleman’s protein powder or some such thing; he handed me a credit card which wouldn’t scan. He made the typical comment that they had been having trouble with it. I said, “Looks like somebody hasn’t been doing their job at the credit card factory.” Yeah. Smooth.
Getting an apartment with Ashraf and Donald at the beginning of March. It’s a nice three-bedroom flat with a big living room. We’re on the second floor; the first floor is a garage, so we’ll have no neighbors above or below us to complain or be complained about. It’s amazing how similar we all are in temperament. I think we’re going to get along great. Not to mention we’ll have a pool (reservable for parties), gym, a little car wash facility, quiet area, and it’s barely in Chatham county, where they don’t do sniff tests on the cars during the annual inspection! Best ever! :o)