Walking excitement
Feb. 16th, 2010 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99"Adventures" is too positive a term.
In theory,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
livingdeb , cartaufalous and I go walking twice a week at a local mall. My mall walking experience today started and ended with a fight.
I was waiting for livingdeb (=walking around) when I walked into the middle of a fight. I didn't realize I was between key players until one woman shouted at another (paraphrased for my lack of memory), "Keep your f-ing hands to yourself, f-ing bitch!" She went on like that for a while, as I hurried away. I did not notice any actual hands touching other persons. I did see a mall cop not-running toward me. The crowd was dispersing as livingdeb came up to me.
We entertained ourselves today by attempting to measure the number of closed vs open stores in the mall. Assume there is a certain amount of measurement error here (my error in recording, and possibly our error in evaluating where a closed store started and ended).
Closed stores: 54
Open stores: 88
Livingdeb viewed this as "More than half of them are open!" I viewed it as "38% of them are closed! That means only 62% of them are open! That is crazy-closed!"
So as livingdeb and I walked to my car, I mostly used the crosswalk. Which the first car seemed to feel meant speed up! Oooo-kay... The second car, which had seemed a safe distance away in the other direction ALSO seemed to see my presence as a pedestrian in a mall parking lot, walking (mostly) in the marked pedestrian crossway as a reason to speed up. This one actually had to swerve quite a bit to avoid actually hitting me. ...??? I stood on the pavement as the car sped away and pointed at the pavement and did my best to mime complete bewilderment. Livingdeb stood a safe distance away and snickered. The second car stopped a ways away and opened a door (what, rolling down windows not good enough now?!) and I got the benefit of (again, paraphrasing) "What are you, crazy b--?! You want to die?!" I shouted something back that I remembering thinking was pithy but was likely not near as eloquent as the four things I immediately thought of once we were driving away. Isn't that always the way?
Livingdeb said, "Aren't you so cute and optimistic? You actually thought they would stop!"
"Wait, wait! I'm the pessimist in this relationship!" I protested.
"Yes," she said, "but I happily expect them not to stop, and act accordingly. You still harbor the illusion that they will!" And are consequently disappointed.
*sigh*
In theory,
livingdeb , cartaufalous and I go walking twice a week at a local mall. My mall walking experience today started and ended with a fight.I was waiting for livingdeb (=walking around) when I walked into the middle of a fight. I didn't realize I was between key players until one woman shouted at another (paraphrased for my lack of memory), "Keep your f-ing hands to yourself, f-ing bitch!" She went on like that for a while, as I hurried away. I did not notice any actual hands touching other persons. I did see a mall cop not-running toward me. The crowd was dispersing as livingdeb came up to me.
We entertained ourselves today by attempting to measure the number of closed vs open stores in the mall. Assume there is a certain amount of measurement error here (my error in recording, and possibly our error in evaluating where a closed store started and ended).
Closed stores: 54
Open stores: 88
Livingdeb viewed this as "More than half of them are open!" I viewed it as "38% of them are closed! That means only 62% of them are open! That is crazy-closed!"
So as livingdeb and I walked to my car, I mostly used the crosswalk. Which the first car seemed to feel meant speed up! Oooo-kay... The second car, which had seemed a safe distance away in the other direction ALSO seemed to see my presence as a pedestrian in a mall parking lot, walking (mostly) in the marked pedestrian crossway as a reason to speed up. This one actually had to swerve quite a bit to avoid actually hitting me. ...??? I stood on the pavement as the car sped away and pointed at the pavement and did my best to mime complete bewilderment. Livingdeb stood a safe distance away and snickered. The second car stopped a ways away and opened a door (what, rolling down windows not good enough now?!) and I got the benefit of (again, paraphrasing) "What are you, crazy b--?! You want to die?!" I shouted something back that I remembering thinking was pithy but was likely not near as eloquent as the four things I immediately thought of once we were driving away. Isn't that always the way?
Livingdeb said, "Aren't you so cute and optimistic? You actually thought they would stop!"
"Wait, wait! I'm the pessimist in this relationship!" I protested.
"Yes," she said, "but I happily expect them not to stop, and act accordingly. You still harbor the illusion that they will!" And are consequently disappointed.
*sigh*
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T's response
Date: 2010-02-17 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 05:27 am (UTC)I heard something more like, "You want your ass run over?" and "This is a parking lot!!"
My power of invisibility was greater than yours this evening. Ha!
P.S. I did not snicker. I just veered off the pedestrian crossing so I would stay in the lane the car wasn't using.
More comments here.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 07:50 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I have also been on the receiving end of well-deserved rants, unfortunately. I pulled out from a curb at 1am on a dark, deserted street (well, it had been deserted before I got into my car, as per my inspection) without signaling or, apparently, checking my side and/or rear-view mirrors, and nearly killed a night-cyclist. I definitely deserved the names yelled at me then.