Yay Saab!

I drive about 5 miles to work. Most people would kill for such a short commute, especially around here, but the more I drive it, the more I am reminded of my leisurely (if long) drives to Barnes & Noble on the little country roads. There is one stretch of the road I take that goes from 2 lanes before the traffic light/intersection to 1 lane about 50 yards after the intersection. This makes for some interesting merges, especially when the road is a major artery to downtown and NC State. People are always doing crazy things for this merge, and I've almost been rearended on more occasions than I can count, because someone decides to fly in the left lane, slam on his brakes, and merge into a spot that really isn't big enough, which then causes everyone else to slam on their brakes. It's amazing that there aren't accidents there everyday.

On this particular morning, I got stuck in the right lane while someone decided to stop (while the traffic light was green), and let someone turn left out of the Burger King parking lot. Now, while this is a nice gesture, it was a really stupid one, because anyone who knows anything about this road, knows that the only time this person will get to go is when the traffic light is red and cars aren't coming the other direction. Needless to say, a lot of people got cranky, and I didn't make it through the light. I was, however, the first one at the light, and this is where the title of this post comes in. You wouldn't think that an old, rather heavy, and slightly underpowered 4 cylinder could win a race with an SUV, but my car took me where I needed to go this morning. The one thing I hate almost as much as people cutting in front of me just because I leave enough space between me and the car in front of me so that I don't rear end them, is when someone is in the left lane at that road and thinks that they are going to speed out at the traffic light and cut in front of me. Everyone in the whole city knows about this intersection, but they don't care, and choose to risk their life and mine. Feeling particularly annoyed by the stupidity, I decided I was at least going to try to go out strong from the intersection. Well, I don't think that SUV expected me, in my beige yuppy hatchback, to put up a fight, because I stayed even with him/her until they gave up and decided they would pull in behind me. I know some people (who shall remain nameless :) ) think my car is underpowered, which it is, and don't like to drive it, but I think it proved it still has some spunk today. At least I didn't get squished by the SUV :)