Thursday, January 15, 2009

Crap Day

About a year ago, I was driving Emma to school. As usual, I was running late. Emma's school is located inside a residential neighborhood. After I turned off of the main road onto the residential street, I continued driving at the same speed. It's very easy to forget to slow down. I'm still not even sure what the speed limit is in a residential neighborhood, but I was going well above it in hopes of getting her to school on time. As it turned out, I was driving 37 mph, and a lovely man on a motorcycle drove up behind me. He was parked off to the side of the street, preying on desperate, speeding mothers. I won't dispute it in court, but I plead entrapment. Anywho, I was close to Emma's school, so I continued on while he followed me. I drove into the drop off lane, and when I stopped to let Emma get out of the car, he immediately got off his bike and walked to my window. I was hoping he would at least let me pull out of the school and drive away a bit. He was immediately a jerk (don't they all seem jerky when they're pulling you over?), which caused me to become a bit defensive. I wasn't disputing the fact that I was speeding, but I asked him, "Why didn't you let me pull out of her school and away a bit so that I wouldn't be sitting here blocking other cars?".
He replied, jerkishly, "Why, are you embarrassed?".
"No," I lied, "but I would rather not be blocking other cars."
"I let you drop your kid off, didn't I?" he retorted, smugly.

He was both smug and jerkish.

So, for the next several minutes, I had to sit in the drop off lane while he filled out paperwork for my ticket. Sometime during this, he had apparently called for back-up because another lovely, smug, jerkish man drove up on a motorcycle, and engaged his cop-friend in a conversation about which long sleeved shirts work best underneath their uniform. All the while, parents where eyeing my car suspiciously, making a mental note not to set up a carpool with the mom in the red civic. So, the ticket gets issued and I'm on my way back home. Waiting for me at home was a friend who was going to watch Lost with me. I tell you this because it will matter later on in my tale. After my friend left, I checked my mail, and wouldn't you know, I had a letter addressed to me which contained a picture of me turning left through a red light. Maybe it was a good thing I got both tickets in one day - why spread out the misery when it can just be piled on me all at once? I paid my tickets, did my traffic school, and all is well. Although, I still believe the photo radar ticket was invalid. I remember getting flashed that day. Previous to my turning left, a fire truck had gone through the intersection, and they're always messing around with the traffic lights. So, the time allotted to my green arrow was half as long as normal. I tried to fight it, but it was useless.

This morning, I woke up in a strangely good mood. I'm not sure what triggered it, but I was feeling pretty swell. As I was driving through the drop off lane at Emma's school (I was shockingly on time today), I noticed a parked car, with a lovely, jerkish, smug man on his motorcycle behind it. His latest victim's car looked an awful lot like the car of the friend who was waiting at my house last year to watch Lost with me. I thought that it would be a terrible coincidence that the same cop would pull us both over, and to embarrass us by doing his job while we waited at our child's school. As I was driving through the drop off lane, I turned my head to see inside the car, and I determined it was NOT my friend's car. As I turned my head back to look straight in front of me, I found myself to be entangled in a shiny black Tahoe's bumper, or in other words, I rear-ended a guy, who I think was a doctor because his license plate said AZOBGYN. Well, wouldn't you know, the same lovely, jerkish, smug man cycled himself over to our little accident, and gave me another ticket. My great mood quickly soured. My car is still drivable, but it looks terrible. My auto body shop won't be able to get to my car till Monday, so I need to wait until then to drop it off because I'm limited as to how long I can have a rental for. I asked about the raise to my insurance rate. I was told that as long as the total damage doesn't exceed $750, there's no raise. $750 sounded doable, since it looks like just my hood needs to be replaced, and the other guy's bumper was only scratched. Well, there's a reason why I'm not an adjuster, because mine was just here and he left me with a $5,969.64 estimated cost to repair everything.

I think you have it out for me,
you lovely, jerkish, smug motorcycle driver.

12 comments:

Ed and Bel said...

J,
You do not need to pay for the camera tickets unless you get served. If it happens again, which I hope it does not, do not pay it until you get random flowers from and old guy. =) Does the motorcycle cop happen to be Officer Wells?

Heather said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Monique said...

Jeez, what a crappy day!

Hang in there, as soon as you turn 25 your insurance rate will go down.

Heather said...

oh jaylee, I saw the other car getting a ticket too. I follow that AZOBGYN car almost every morning from Southern/Price all the way to the drop off lane. So sorry for you...is Clint being kind about it?

April said...

You are right nothing else says it like Crap Day. Sorry about that!

Rachael said...

That just sucks! I am so sorry about it! That is a crazy price for a hood! Hope your day gets better!

Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel any better, I once caused a 5 car pile up by rear ending somebody. That was embarrassing. I'm so sad for your lovely car.

H said...

Am I the only voice of reason?! You know how I feel about people driving and looking at accidents and others pulled over by cops. Sheesh Jaylee, we JUST had this conversation as you were playing Mrs. Citizen Cop, reporting the hit and run giant truck that I paid no attention to. DUH! It was your own dumb fault that you rear ended the doc.

All that being said, I too am sorry that you had a crappy day. I hate photo radar, red light cameras and smug cops, especially those on motorcycles. Maybe some Flight of the Conchord will brighten your weekend.

Unknown said...

WOW! THAT IS A BAD DAY!!! I hope not all of you days are that way. All you can do is work on being on time and lowering your speed if that cop is always there. I had a smug cop give me a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign at the kids school and I did stop but he said I didn't and No fighting would help.

Jaylee Draney said...

Helena is right - it is my own dang fault.

RJ said...

I have no idea why I feel compelled to share my horror story instead of simply offer you empathy and understanding, but holy cow may I tell you that I once rear ended a car with four children in the car with me (none of which belonged to me and some of which needed to be in booster seats and weren't) and a policeman right behind me. They were all in tears and thought the policeman was going to take me to jail. It was such a mess, topped off with the GINORMOUS price tag of fixing my car which was just like you - I thought "How much could those dings cost?" At least my policeman was nice. So you win the crap day contest that you didn't even enter :).

Deanna said...

Other than the fact that I was laughing several times throughout that story.... I do feel bad for you. Hang in there!