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January 31, 2008
A story to share
I was catching up on some of my Tivo shows and watched an interesting Oprah one. It was about listening to your intuition and how, as females, our fear is a gift we should use to stay safe. Often we don't though because we're too worried about seeming rude or cold or, gasp, a bitch.
I'm not worried about any of those.
I don't wave to any of the endless stream of construction workers on our street. I don't make pleasantries with the guy stocking the shelves at the grocery store and I don't engage in conversations with the person pumping gas next to me. I may come off as rude, but I just don't care.
That's not saying I won't return a 'hello', but I know how to keep an interaction at just that.
Now for my story that her show reminded me of.
I was driving to my parents the other day, Saturday afternoon at 2:30 to be exact, along the stretch that is quite desolate and only sprinkled with the occasional gas station or farm. Where I was driving meant I had out of state tags and limited cell phone service. I was also with the girls and sometimes I have heightened senses when I have the kids in tow.
There was a black car, with a male driver, sitting in what I would call my blind spot. He came up on me kind of fast and then slowed next to me, I had the cruise control on and after what was probably only a minute, he passed me. He then got in front of me. That was my first feeling of 'hmmmm....is he up to something?'. I turned off the cruise control and slowed a bit. He was a little ways ahead of me when he crossed two lanes and turned on his left turn signal at the traffic light. The straight light, mine, was green. I went through and he pulled out in to the lane again and was behind me once more.
Here of course was my second feeling of 'yeah, he may be up to something'. I will admit it crossed my mind not to listen to my intuition, that maybe he was just lost or he turned too soon. But I got my cell phone out and put it in my lap anyway. I turned at my left and so did he. The speed limit was 55, so I went 45 to give him a chance to pass me. He didn't. I went to 35 and he still didn't pass me. I got on the phone and called Mark. He started passing me while I was on the phone, sat beside me again and then he pulled in front of me again. Seeing that we were coming to a traffic light in the middle of nowhere I decided to just turn around. The thought went through my mind that turning around would make me and my out of state tags look lost, but it was also going to give me the absolute confirmation I needed before I continued to drive into the backwoods of Georgia.
So I turned, went about 2 miles and turned around again. He was gone and I let out my breath I didn't know I was holding.
I may have needlessly added more time to my trip or caused myself undue worry, but the old cliche will always hold true-
better safe than sorry.
I hope I'll always listen to my intuition and I hope I never find myself worried about what I may seem like to complete strangers.
I hope the exact same for our little girls.
Posted by Amy at January 31, 2008 02:07 PM
Comments
wow...i had a similar experience a couple of years ago driving home from Hattiesburg, but I was lucky that it ended up being nothing. It's scary to think of all the "what if's" that could have happened if you hadn't been so aware...
Posted by: Meagan at January 31, 2008 11:30 PM
That is scary! So glad you all are safe. There are some real creeps out there!
Posted by: Courtney at February 1, 2008 09:13 PM