charming.
Picked up Ashraf to go to lunch today for our weekly “Italian Thursday” or whatever… It seems like every day is construction day here at UNC, but today was particularly bad. Going down the hill from the hospital area on Columbia street, the left lane was blocked by construction. It’s over a rise, so the cars in my lane (including me) didn’t know it until the last second, and many of them were turning around after minutes of frustration trying to get into the right lane. Not wanting to pull a u-turn, and having sat there with my blinker on for more than a few minutes, I saw an opening in front of a white Chevy SUV, so I moved forward and nosed in. This action was immediately followed by a nice horn blast from Mr. SUV Driver as well as a few lovely comments directed out his open window. My window was down, so I stuck my hand out in a gesture of, “Thank you.” He must have thought this was an affront of some sort, since as soon as I was stopped I saw in my side mirror his car door open and a pair of jeans walking up to my car. “Wonderful,” I thought. Didn’t have time to roll up my window; got a few choice sentences peppered with, ah, colorful metaphors, to which I responded, “Thank you very much for letting me in. I appreciate it.” I think he was expecting a confrontation, either that or I didn’t seem as intimidated/defensive as he thought I’d be, since he staggered back a few steps, wordless, then lurched back to his car, muttering. Kinda put a damper on the whole lunch hour, but we got over it and had a good time. And some jerk chicken pizza and cheese breadsticks at the Mellow Mushroom.
I think next time I’ll pick a restaurant that’s a bit closer, though, i.e. one on Franklin.
Kinda makes me wonder what he would have done if Ashraf and I had gotten out of the car, though.
Back to work.