08-22-2004, 06:26 AM
It had been a long day at work. It's not rare for me to order lunch and then have to set it aside for the rest of the day for me to pick at or otherwise take home to eat either later in the evening after dinner or later on in the week. I don't have a set lunch hour. While the rest of the guys are eating lunch in the back of the shop, I eat mine at the desk in the office often stopping to answer the phones or helping customers that happen to walk into the office. This particular day, there just wasn't a chance to eat. We were busy, I was pissed and starving. By 6, when we officially closed, I just wanted to go home. I collected payments from the remaining customers in the office, closed out the credit card machine, locked the office, and crossed the street to the corner bodega to buy some cigarettes for the following night. I bought my pack of Camel Lights and two packages of Combos, Nacho Cheese Pretzel if I remember correctly. If I couldn't eat my linguini with red clam sauce in the car on the way home, then I was going to eat something, goddamnit. I went back to the shop, grabbed my stuff and secured the building for the night. Then I hopped into my car, tore open a bag of Combos, and headed home trying to put the grueling day behind me. Now driving on Springfield Ave between Newark and Springfield is quite the hellish experience. Between the many streetlights, you've got asshole drivers trying to turn one lane into two, pedestrians oblivious to oncoming traffic trying to cross anyway, the occasional old lady pulling away from the curb fresh from her perm appointment high on hairspray fumes who doesn't signal so that I know she's pulling out and doesn't even look to see if there's someone driving by alongside her, etc. It's quite the obstacle course. Now as I approach the intersection of Prospect St and Springfield Ave, listening to the traffic report on 101.5 to see what 78 holds in store for my ride home and picking a pretzel from the package of combos to eat, I spy a woman sitting in the opposite direction waiting to turn left at the intersection up ahead. I'm following the car ahead of me at a brisk pace, about 25 mph and with about 15 feet between us. This portly woman in her blue Chrysler New Yorker thinks she will try to turn as the car infront of me passes her hoping that I will notice her and come to sudden stop and let her pass. As the car passes her she tries to gun it, but halts as soon it becomes apparent to her that I'm thinking she's better of fucking herself where she sits. She throws her hands up in frustration and shouts something indiscernible to me. As I pass through the intersection, with pretzel still in hand, the hunger and the frustration of the day reaches it peak. That this sow, this selfimportant portly woman in a rusty sedan, would think that her destination would supercede anyone elses on the road at that time that she felt she could tear through the intersection without regard for anyone else on the road at the time. With the pretzel almost to my mouth, I spied her window open and as I passed I flung that goddamn pretzel out my open window and saw it connect with her furious fat little nose. Then I continued on home.
God that felt good.
God that felt good.