Weird things stick in my brain
Early March is a little touch-and-go, weather-wise, in Jersey. It can be sweater weather one day and snow a foot the next. Today, though, and supposedly this whole weekend, it's gorgeous out, more like early May than March. We are supposed to hit 70 today. 70 degrees. Fahrenheit! That, coupled with the staying light out later, is elevating my mood considerably at the end of a long-ass week.
Anyway, though, as I was pulling into work this morning, I thought, "Hey! March 10 was also a Friday in 2000, and it was unseasonably warm that day, just like this."
I have always had a weird thing with this, "Do you remember what happened exactly a year ago today?!" and I'm almost the only one who does, because other people make room in their brains for things that actually matter, whereas I just harbor a lot of random nonsense.
Anyway, March 10 is my niece Julia's birthday (and I'm secretly very, very sad that I wasn't invited to her ice skating party tomorrow, but that's another story), so the date sticks in my head. So March 10, 2000 was her first birthday, which is part of why I remember the date, but it was also the day I got pulled over for the first (and to date, only, knock on wood) time, and I'm still bitter that they actually gave me a ticket the very first time I was pulled over.
And I'd already started that day off bitter; I had had a huge fight with the boyfriend the night before, over what I have no idea, but I was still enraged when I woke up, but it was sunny and beautiful outside, so I went for a run outside to get it all out. I didn't usually exercise in the morning then; I usually was at work by like 8 or 8:15, but I was so pissed off that I just didn't care, and I ran and ran and ran and I left for work around 8:30.
My office has its very own traffic light at the end of the driveway, which forms a T with a two-way traffic road; there's traffic only perpendicular to our entrance. I make a right directly from the road into our building's long, winding driveway. And on March 10, 2000, at 8:40 in the morning, I was maybe 50 yards into the driveway when I heard the siren and saw the lights behind me. I was worried, a little, that one of my co-workers was hurt or something, or our building had been robbed, or maybe someone had just inadvertently called 911. But when I pulled over to get out of the way, I realized the police car was stopping behind me. What? What the hell? I was on private property, and I was definitely not speeding. I was totally startled and confused.
So I rolled down my window and the cop told me I hadn't made a complete stop at the light when I turned into the driveway. And how could I prove I had (which I'm pretty sure I did, although floating through my head was, "I, like, totally paused!!"), when he said I hadn't? I kind of figured I'd get off with a warning regardless, since I'd never ever been pulled over before, and it was at my place of business, for pete's sake, and dozens of my co-workers were driving by us verrrrrrrrrryyyy slowly as they made their way to the parking lot; wouldn't that humiliation be a sufficient deterrent to future rolling stops?
Apparently not, because he walked away with my license and came back with a ticket, and only then did I start protesting, and at that point he told me it was too late, and there are tons of accidents on that road. And even though it'd been drilled into me all my life that you show police officers respect, I could not help myself from snotting, "Yeah, I'm really sure that there are tons of my co-workers crashing into each other as they're coming into work in the morning." Which is totally unlike me, but it was such a crappy day, in such sharp contrast to the perfect weather (I was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and no jacket, and part of why I remember that that day was a Friday is because I was in business casual).
I pulled into the parking lot and hauled ass to my office so I could just break down, sobbing uncontrollably and wondering if the fact that the cop had written my firt name as "Tnagent" on the ticket might invalidate it (answer: no).
My sister-in-law (Julia's mom) is a lawyer, so she went with me to my court appearance (argument to the court: "She's adorable, and she's such a good kid. She's never even been pulled over before, and look at her! Look how cute she is!"; fee: a hot fudge sundae at McDonald's afterward)and got my ticket knocked down, but I still ended up with insurance points with the reduced penalty.
My boyfriend and I broke up a few months later, Julia's now seven-going-on-seventeen, and my insurance went back down, but I'm still working at the end of that same long driveway with the traffic light. And I always, always, always count for five seconds before turning right on red.
I hadn't thought about that day in ages -- it's not like anticipating a wedding anniversary or something, when I actively think about the "a year ago today..." thing. It's weird how the smallest thing can trigger a huge, vivid flood of memories about something fairly inconsequential, and how something that was once such a huge traumatic thing matters so little in the end.
Anyway, though, as I was pulling into work this morning, I thought, "Hey! March 10 was also a Friday in 2000, and it was unseasonably warm that day, just like this."
I have always had a weird thing with this, "Do you remember what happened exactly a year ago today?!" and I'm almost the only one who does, because other people make room in their brains for things that actually matter, whereas I just harbor a lot of random nonsense.
Anyway, March 10 is my niece Julia's birthday (and I'm secretly very, very sad that I wasn't invited to her ice skating party tomorrow, but that's another story), so the date sticks in my head. So March 10, 2000 was her first birthday, which is part of why I remember the date, but it was also the day I got pulled over for the first (and to date, only, knock on wood) time, and I'm still bitter that they actually gave me a ticket the very first time I was pulled over.
And I'd already started that day off bitter; I had had a huge fight with the boyfriend the night before, over what I have no idea, but I was still enraged when I woke up, but it was sunny and beautiful outside, so I went for a run outside to get it all out. I didn't usually exercise in the morning then; I usually was at work by like 8 or 8:15, but I was so pissed off that I just didn't care, and I ran and ran and ran and I left for work around 8:30.
My office has its very own traffic light at the end of the driveway, which forms a T with a two-way traffic road; there's traffic only perpendicular to our entrance. I make a right directly from the road into our building's long, winding driveway. And on March 10, 2000, at 8:40 in the morning, I was maybe 50 yards into the driveway when I heard the siren and saw the lights behind me. I was worried, a little, that one of my co-workers was hurt or something, or our building had been robbed, or maybe someone had just inadvertently called 911. But when I pulled over to get out of the way, I realized the police car was stopping behind me. What? What the hell? I was on private property, and I was definitely not speeding. I was totally startled and confused.
So I rolled down my window and the cop told me I hadn't made a complete stop at the light when I turned into the driveway. And how could I prove I had (which I'm pretty sure I did, although floating through my head was, "I, like, totally paused!!"), when he said I hadn't? I kind of figured I'd get off with a warning regardless, since I'd never ever been pulled over before, and it was at my place of business, for pete's sake, and dozens of my co-workers were driving by us verrrrrrrrrryyyy slowly as they made their way to the parking lot; wouldn't that humiliation be a sufficient deterrent to future rolling stops?
Apparently not, because he walked away with my license and came back with a ticket, and only then did I start protesting, and at that point he told me it was too late, and there are tons of accidents on that road. And even though it'd been drilled into me all my life that you show police officers respect, I could not help myself from snotting, "Yeah, I'm really sure that there are tons of my co-workers crashing into each other as they're coming into work in the morning." Which is totally unlike me, but it was such a crappy day, in such sharp contrast to the perfect weather (I was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and no jacket, and part of why I remember that that day was a Friday is because I was in business casual).
I pulled into the parking lot and hauled ass to my office so I could just break down, sobbing uncontrollably and wondering if the fact that the cop had written my firt name as "Tnagent" on the ticket might invalidate it (answer: no).
My sister-in-law (Julia's mom) is a lawyer, so she went with me to my court appearance (argument to the court: "She's adorable, and she's such a good kid. She's never even been pulled over before, and look at her! Look how cute she is!"; fee: a hot fudge sundae at McDonald's afterward)and got my ticket knocked down, but I still ended up with insurance points with the reduced penalty.
My boyfriend and I broke up a few months later, Julia's now seven-going-on-seventeen, and my insurance went back down, but I'm still working at the end of that same long driveway with the traffic light. And I always, always, always count for five seconds before turning right on red.
I hadn't thought about that day in ages -- it's not like anticipating a wedding anniversary or something, when I actively think about the "a year ago today..." thing. It's weird how the smallest thing can trigger a huge, vivid flood of memories about something fairly inconsequential, and how something that was once such a huge traumatic thing matters so little in the end.
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