So, you're probably going to get a lot of posts from me about driving and traffic. All right, well, not a lot, but I thought I'd exaggerate for the sake of warning fairly. Fairly warned? Good? I'll (finally) move on now.

I commute about 10 miles to and from campus every day. That may not sound like a lot to some people, but for someone who always lived within walking distance of school for her entire undergraduate career, it's a big deal. (And, since I'm an Oregonian, it troubles me how much CO2 and other goodies I'm putting out every day due to said driving. For one of my physical meteorology assignments we had to figure out how much CO2 was emitted per year by a car using up x amount of gasoline, and it was absolutely disgusting, heightening my sense of personal polluting even further. But I digress.)

Let's return to the actual topic: that of driving in the midst of many other cars every day. These other cars are fine, a mix of sedans, sporty cars, SUVs, all that good stuff, but the drivers are a problem at times. I may not live in California, but as far as the driving stereotype goes, I might as well be.

However, I'm not going to go off about discourteous drivers in general. No, I'm going to discuss one driver in particular: Mr. Newer-Looking Altima Driver (Mr. Altima for short). Let's start at the beginning. I got out of the parking lot onto a nearby road and was driving my merry little way toward the next intersection when I found myself behind two cars driving below the speed limit. It's not really that big of a deal to me - I wasn't going to be on that street much longer and hey, lower RPMs = less gas used - but the Altima suddenly a few feet from my bumper looked like he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. (Yes, he was close enough for me to tell at one quick glance in my rearview mirror that he was a younger-looking irritated white-collar-type guy.) Once we finally reached the intersection I noticed he also had his blinker on (someone who uses blinkers! a discussion for another time) so once I turned I took the advantage of the two-lanes-each-way street to get out of his way. And it was a good thing I did. Next thing I know he's zooming by me going at least double my speed within seconds, and not many later he's in my lane again. I watch him throw on his brakes at the line-up of cars ahead of him stopped at the light, do some sort of irritated maneuvering - the kind used when you're trying to figure out what's going on up ahead - and then get into the left turn lane. I giggle. That's where I'm going. I end up right behind him, a car length farther back than I would have been had I stayed ahead of him, and having wasted no gas at all. I love those victorious moments, even if I'm the only one enjoying them.

(A side note. I did a little bit of research on the car once I got home, and would you believe he was sporting the lower end of the possible engines with that attitude? There was a flashy 2.5 badge on the trunk of the car, which has about 175-hp, a far cry from its bigger brother, the 3.5L 270-hp engine. Yes, I laughed. He must get horrible gas mileage with the way he kept gunning it all the time...)

The light changes, we turn onto another four lane road, and he pulls more thislane-thatlane zig zags, finally settling in the left lane as I watch in amusement from the right. And, what do you know, all that movement gained him zero time. I end up ahead at the next red intersection. This leads to him getting just behind me (wait, isn't this where we started this elongated tale?) right before the two lanes merge into one on the windy, sort of residential, can't-pass-at-all-so-you're-stuck-where-you-are stretch. This stretch is 2.7 miles long (yes, I checked; Google Maps is a wonderful thing) and I feel every yard of it when someone's less than that distance from my tail half the time, like this guy was. Mr. Altima fell into the category of you-don't-get-that-I-go-slow- because-you're-tailgating-me-not-because-I-want-to-bug-you drivers. I get a lot of those.

Anyway. I obviously survived that stretch to finally reach the point where it split into two lanes again. There's another car just ahead of me that gets into the left lane, going about my speed, and I'm in the right. Mr. Altima takes his chance! He guns it, going into the left lane, going, reaching for the freedom of speeding 10+ m.p.h. over the limit - and then suddenly the light bulb comes on in the form of two red brake lights. Hellooooo~ you can't do that when there's not even a car length in distance between the car in your lane and the car in the lane you want to get into. He finally realizes that resistance is futile (in other words, I'm not going to irritate the new guy coming up behind me by randomly braking to let Mr. Altima get in front of me) and squeezes back into his old position sniffing my car's bumper. I'll admit it: I was really happy when he turned into the parking lot of a group of stores at the next intersection rather than continuing to drive behind me. Drivers like that make me mad and nervous, a dangerous combination in any case, especially driving.

Yes, I know, that was long. But it was a good story, right? And it was my first entry, so I deserve a little slack, eh? I'll see if I can work a little harder for the next one. In the meantime, though, I have a tropical meteorology midterm to study for.