Rules of the Road (For Idiots)

Alright, let's start this little lesson off with a nice anecdote about how I had a heart attack while driving!

This late afternoon, I was driving to go pick up my boyfriend. To get out of my neighbourhood, I have to drive through a forest area. At one point, there's a path that ends on one side of the road, and continues on the other side. So the city put a crosswalk here. They were even smart enough to put in a stop sign for the crosswalk, so that anyone trying to cross the road has to stop for cars, not the other way around. This is important, because while drivers going North can easily see pedestrians from far away, the drivers going south are blocked by a curve in the road, and do not have as much reaction time. Thus, pedestrians stop for cars.

So I'm driving south, maybe doing 55kpm in a 50kpm zone. I had to slow down because of the curve in the road, but still doing around 50kpm. I get around the corner, and I see a bicyclist on the road. This is normal, I have enough room to get past them. But just as I'm maybe five metres away from the crosswalk, this cyclist suddenly turns to cross the crosswalk. They didn't look behind them, they didn't check for cars, they didn't get off their bike, they didn't see the stop sign for them. I have to slam on the breaks, and luckily the person had seen me and stopped their bike, or else I probably would have hit them. Not hard, I managed to stop barely in the crosswalk, but I definitely would have bumped them over. So they guy gives me a weird look, and I slowly continue to drive. He continued across the crosswalk, still riding his bike (that means he's technically a vehicle).

At this point, I'm angry, but I can continue on this my life. At least I didn't hit him, and the world is all good. I stop at the stop sign at the next intersection, then continue.

And then I hear a siren. I freak out and see a ghost car behind me, so I pull over, thinking that I was going to get in trouble for not letting the cyclist cross before I continued on again.

The police car drives right past me, and zips down the street. I just sat there for a few seconds, until it clicked that I was not being pulled over. Once I was able to breathe again, and my heart started working, I continued on my way.


Moral of the story for everyone:

Drivers: Expect everyone to suddenly pull out in front of you. If there is a cyclist near a crosswalk, at least slow down. They might have no idea what they're doing.

Pedestrians: Please be aware of all cars around you. It is possible for you to have to stop for cars, not the other way around. Even if you normally have the right away, don't think that you're invincible. Make sure that a car will be able to stop for you before you step out onto the street.

Bicyclists: GET OFF YOUR GOD-DAMNED BIKE BEFORE USING A CROSSWALK! If you stay on your bike, you are considered a vehicle, and other vehicles do not need to give you the right away, unless it is deserved, like at a light or a stop sign. Learn to use hand signals, so that other vehicles know that you're planning on turning. Same rules as when you're in a car, but you have to use your hands, not a blinking light (though too few people use that now a days either...) And look before crossing a street. My car is far from being quiet. It is impossible for me to sneak up on anyone. It would be like a toddler in squeaky shoes running up to a shelf of stuffed animals. So there is no reason for you to believe that there could not possibly be any cars on the road.


You know, come to think of it, I don't even know if that cyclist was wearing a helmet.

Adulting is Hard

So last week my wallet was stolen. This week I found out that my dental insurance through school is worse than my dad's. My dad's insurance coverage is famous in my dental office for being the worst that they've seen. And mine is worse than that. For example, my insurance covers one cavity every two years. I normally get at least one cavity every visit, which is (supposed to) be every six months. Okay, I admit, part of that is my fault. I love sugar. I can blame part of it on the dentist though. Twice now they've charged me for a filling that they had to replace because the last one they put in was either 'falling out' or wasn't done properly the first time. And by 'falling out', I mean they had to drill it out of my mouth. Then they charged me the full amount.

So I'm going to have to start declining fillings, because I just cannot pay for them. Not to mention I can't continue to pay for the dentist's mistakes. I also suspect that they messed up the last two fillings that they did, because right after they were done, my teeth were super sensitive. They never felt like that before the fillings, and I've never felt that after any other fillings. So I'm seeing another couple replacement fillings in the future, that I will also have to cover.

Thanks dentist.

Cats are less of an asshole than some people

Never trust anyone! Seriously, lock up everything you own and guard it like a dragon guards a treasure.

I was working today, four hours by myself, as usual. My shift ends and I close up the store. When I'm getting my stuff, I notice that my phone isn't in my bag. No big deal, I probably left it at my boyfriend's house. I would just pop by before heading home. Once I get there, neither of us can find it, so he gives it a call. It's turned off. Which means that it's been stolen. My phone was basically fully charged before I left for work, and I never turn my phone off. But it went straight to voice mail, which means that it's off.

My naive brain thinks 'Dang, I must have left it on the shelf in the backroom, or maybe it fell out of my purse and I didn't notice. I guess I'll have to get it tomorrow.' My boyfriend asked if I still had my wallet. And of course that's gone too. I didn't even notice when I was doing my bag check after work.

Luckily the thief didn't gain more than five dollars, because I had spent all the bills I had until now. I managed to cancel all my cards, and lock my phone, so that asshole won't get more than an old five dollar bill folded into an oragami heart. I hope that makes your pathetic life just a little better.

So yeah... That's what's been up with me lately. My regional manager says that he's doing everything he can to figure out what happened, but I know that there isn't much that can be done. The cameras in the store will tell us about any customers that went near the back room, but it won't show who actually went back there. Tomorrow I'll go to the police and file a report, then work on getting cards, phones and ID's back in order.

Being unlucky is hard work.

Adult Drama

I'm back! Sorry for the break... Again. I have a bit of a rant today.

When I was a kid, my dad would always make sure that I was inclusive. I could never say no to a friend while saying yes to another. This was a bit of a problem, as none of my friends got along with each either. This was mostly because their parents didn't get along, or because they were sister. However, they had to bear it, because for some reason, I was the popular kid in my neighbourhood. If they wanted to play with me, they also had to play with my other friends. And it worked out. They might have fought a bit, but otherwise they acted civil. If something got on the nerves of one of them, they would just leave for a bit, then come back when they calmed down. This was back when I was ten years old.

So you can imagine my annoyance that now, when I'm twenty two, my friends cannot even pretend to get along. Rather than  bearing one person they don't like to be able to hang out with several people that they do like, it's more like 'Oh, that person is invited? I guess I'm not coming then.' This is what I expected in high school. Maybe that's why I didn't have many friends back then. I skipped the drama then, and I'm facing it now.

To be fair, it's only a couple friends. Most of the time, everyone gets along. It's when I introduce some old or newer friends, ones that are not part of the core group, that I seem to have trouble. While I want to make my core group of friends happy, the younger me that was taught to never exclude people screams at me.

Sometimes it's hard being nice.

Inventory

It has been a very busy week. I had to miss two classes this week because of work. On Tuesday we had inventory. I thought we were way over staffed and putting way too much time into inventory. I was wrong. I was definitely wrong. When I did inventory at Starbucks, I did all the counting, and when I became manager, I did the counting of all our ingredients, then the scanning of all our merchandise, then all the computer stuff. And I did this over a couple days, using in total no more than eight hours. At my new job, we were counting stuff over weeks. Just on Tuesday, when we did the main count of everything, it took me nearly half my shift to count two sections, then the rest of my shift to re-count other sections for mistakes. And this was with ten people also counting. There is a lot of stuff... So much stuff.

Anyway, Tuesday was fun. It was a break in routine, and I didn't have to go to class. I was also scheduled for another shift on Thursday, when I normally also have class. Luckily, that class is basically useless, so I was more than happy to work. Apparently in class, everyone had to colour what their writing voice looked like... I didn't miss much.

But the most interesting thing this week was my dream last night. All I can really remember is that I had a kitten, but didn't have a name for it. So my friend in my dream suggested the name soy sauce. It's now official. If I ever have a black cat, it's name is going to be soy sauce.

+1 to Nerd Level

It's my reading break this coming week, and I only have one thing to work on. So I'm relaxing a bit, and that included a two day game-a-thon. It started later on Friday after I got off work, with some Magic. Stayed up a bit too late, and slept in on Saturday. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, got ready and collected my friends, we played a game of Dungeons and Dragons. For the first time.

We suck.

So first off it took us forever to figure out the rules. When we started to play, we deviated from the proper story and forced the brand new Dungeon Master to make stuff up. In this time, he nearly created goblins with over 70 health. We figured out that he was doing it wrong, and beat those things up. Eventually we got back to the proper story line, the one that's in the beginner's guide.

And proceeded to be ambushed and brutally killed by four goblins. Now this could be because there were only three of us playing, and I had to go to the bathroom right before this was happening, so my character was chilling in the caravan. I mean, 'hiding'. I was playing the rogue and was planning on jumping out to surprise these goblins. I surprised one, then proceeded to completely miss... Then get murdered by another goblin...

So that was our first time playing. We probably should have recruited a Dungeon Master who had actually Mastered before... Well, next time. At least I had fun, and would be willing to try again.

Whoops

And I've already broken my New Year Resolution... My bad. I can't even blame it on school. My boyfriend got me into Diablo 3, and it's all I ever want to play now. I mean, school has been giving me a lot of work, but it's been manageable. And it's been a long weekend, but all I've done is play games with my boyfriend and friends... I have horrible time management skills. At least I've learned to work under pressure. Even now I'm procrastinating on doing homework by writing a blog post. At least I'm doing something... Right?