So this happened about an hour ago (13:40 or so)…

I witnessed the most extreme road rage ever (ok, well not ever. in case you haven't notice i'm kind of prone to exageration...). I was in a left turn lane turning from wolf road onto rte 155 or whatever the road that goes by Albany airport is. At that intersection there are 2 left turn lanes. In front of me in the outer right turn lane was a small white car. In the inner left turn lane coming up next to the white car was a hunter green Mitsubishi Montero sport (NYS license plate BXL 1125).

The white car in front of me sort of started drifting to the left – it looked like it was going to go into the Montero’s lane. The Montero swerved to the left while at the same time the white car realized it was going to hit the Montero and corrected itself back into the outer left turn lane in front of me. After the Montero had regained control and was proceeding normally back in her lane to go through the turn (we had left turn green arrows) she beeped her horn and then continued on her way. In the meantime the white car had waited for the Montero to go past and she merged into that lane behind the Montero.

Then the Montero turned psycho. She suddenly slammed on her brakes twice: once before beginning her turn and a second time in the middle of the turn. She completed the turn and came to a halt behind traffic stopped at the red in front of us. I ended up stopping to the right and slightly back from the Montero. The white car pulled up to the left of the Montero so that they could get on the on ramp to the Northway when the light changed. She ended up stopping right next to the Montero. We were all under an overpass of the Northway and waiting for the light to turn green.

The Montero lady started to blare her horn. She’d lean on it for about 15 seconds and then repeatedly beep it for another 15 seconds before she’d lean on it again. And the whole time she was screaming out her window at the woman in the white car (“You fucking bitch! Get off your cell phone! It’s illegal in New York you bitch!” etc). She was psychotic. It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever witnessed. I mean, wow lady, let it go. Take a breath. Ease up. I mean, talking on your cell while driving will get you a ticket, but so will road rage. And I think the road rage is more dangerous than cell phone usage.

What is wrong with people? Everyone is so mean to everyone else! Why do we have to be that way? It was so scary watching this woman go off on the other woman when really, there was no harm done. An accident almost happened, but it didn’t. Can’t the Montero lady be happy about that? And seriously, if they had collided, there were no other cars around and they’d been going at such a slow speed that most likely no one would have been hurt and cars are easily repaired. I mean, I understand being upset that you almost were in an accident, but it’s psychotic to take it to that extent.

People, in general, just need to calm down.

So I was right yesterday... I still ended up being late to work. I bet I’m late again today, even though I totally woke up "on time" again... I think this means I still haven't fully adjusted. Well, tomorrow's Saturday so I can catch up on some sleep then...

I hope I’m in a better mood today. I mean, I wasn't in a completely bad mood yesterday, but I wasn't my normal chipper self either. I am for some reason having a very tough time adjusting back to my normal life. I’m suddenly not happy with it. I’m just... dissatisfied.

I’m disappointed in myself that I’ve accumulated so much debt that I feel trapped in the life that I’m in right now. I’d like to do something different. I’m not happy in my job, I just don’t like it. It’s not like I don’t like it enough to just up and quit, but I’m already ready for a change. I hate the routine that is my job, but most jobs that appeal to me for their lack of routine won’t start me at enough money for me to live on (and we arrive back at the debt problem again). I’ve got no one to blame but myself and my shopoholic ways.

I’m working on a plan to do something about it though. I’m hoping to acquire a loan that would help me to pay off all the credit card debt within five years. It would be a major, hefty loan (yes, larger than you think) and so I’m not sure that a bank would give it to me, especially since I’ve got nothing for collateral (the car already has a lien on it of course). But if I got it, I’d have the credit card debt and the car paid off in five years. And then I’d be free. And still young… not thirty yet…

So I guess I’ll stop being unhappy and start doing something about it. I’ll go for the loan and then work on my budget and see what I need to live on and hopefully I’ll be able to make a job change. It’s kind of weird that suddenly I need to change, but that’s the person that I’ve become in the last year or so… I seem to fear becoming stale.

I read my horoscope from my birthday again the other day: “You will be incredibly impulsive this year: You will come and go at the drop of a hat and you will change direction, both in your personal life and in your career, without hesitation. Travel of all kinds is especially well starred, and the further away your adventures take you, the more you will get out of them. You may decide not to come back.” It’s actually incredible how much that seems to apply to me. I don’t know what it was about the trip, but now that I’m back I feel the need again for change. And it was right, I didn’t want to come back. Strange.

Well, here I’ve wasted enough time again after getting up early that I’ll most likely be late again to work today… sigh.

so i finally feel like working on this page again, and it looks like i need to pick up at...

Tuesday in Dublin... Afternoon on...

right. so it looks like i left off at the stag's head. so yeah. Glen at the Hairy Lemon suggested that we visit the Stag's Head because it's one of the oldest pubs in Dublin. it was also listed in a guidebook that i'd read and an article that my mom sent me. so we figured it was worth seeking out. it took us a while to find it, mostly due to my lack of navigation, but it was worth it. we'd kind of given up the hunt when we walked randomly down a street and beck pointed at the building next to us and suggested that we just eat there. we looked at the sign over the door and realized that it was, in fact, the stag's head. it didn't look open... the door was closed and there didn't appear to be much light issuing from inside the building. we were about to just continue on when we saw someone push the door open and walk on inside. so we did the same. inside the pub we found the atmosphere to be exactly what you'd expect from the outside: preserved. the bar looked like it's remained the same from the first day it opened its doors.

(oh, i would so desperately like to finish but i'm tired again. hopefully i'll get to this tomorrow before friday night goings on start up... i'd like to get everything down before i begin forgetting stuff!!)

so i think i'm finally catching up with my sleep. i am up earlier today than i'd normally be, but i did go to sleep much earlier than i normally would...

i stayed late at work yesterday - until about 6 - because they were actually offering overtime, so i figured, what the heck, i've got crap to do, so i'll stay and work on it. Carrie was looking depressed (her scottish man left for scotland on monday) and i had nothing in my house to make for dinner so i invited carrie out for dinner at uno's. we had a great dinner... we sat there and talked for almost 2 hours. i'm going to miss carrie when she moves to the uk, but i've got her for another year, so it's nothing to worry about now :)

so i didn't get home until a little after 8 and i was way too lazy to go to the grocery store... i gathered a bunch of the stuff together that i'd saved from my trip and put it with the scrapbook i bought and brought all of it into the living room so i could work on it in front of the tv. yeah, that didn't happen. i started to watch "the look for less" on style network and i was all depressed that i'm so poor and i can't go shopping and then i fell asleep... i hate when i fall asleep on my loveseat in the living room, i always wake up all achey... i put myself to bed at 10:30 and i woke up at 5... i made myself sleep more and finally couldn't stand staying in bed any longer about twenty minutes ago.

but just because i got up "on time" doesn't mean i won't be late to work... i, of course, have done nothing yet to get ready and it's already after 7. besides, i think it'd shock everyone there too much if i got there on time :) i need a new job. something i want to go to... beh. better get my ready on.

ah, what the hell. i'm not able to concentrate at work so i decided to surf the irishfest page because i wanted to have something to be excited about again (not having europe to be excited about anymore sucks). anyway, so i'm excited for the fest this year because i'll get to see hair of the dog and seven nations and they both rule. hotd was amazing last year... a massive crowd of people dancing drunk in the rain... and i've really come to absolutely love seven nations after i saw them on st patrick's day this year, their music is awesome. so yeah. excited for both performances... so i click on the performance schedule and find that HOTD is playing at one stage from 6:30-8:30 and 7N is playing from 7:00 - 8:00 on another. suckage. decisions, decisions... do i go to see HOTD in the hopes that it's as awesome as last year or do i go to see 7N because i haven't seen them since march and they're not local... i guess i could go see 7N and hit HOTD in time for the end of the set when everyone will be drunk and dancing to "I Used to Work in Chicago"...

beh. what i really should be doing right now is work and not thinking about what bands i'll see 3 weeks from now...

cannot concentrate at work today. i suck.

i'll be good for about ten minutes, typing away, getting stuff done, and then all of a sudden i'll stop and stare at the screen. i'm still so tired...

but i've got to stop whining. (it's cold in here. when will i be warm again? i've been freezing since the last day in dublin! sorry... had to whine one more time...)

i miss vacation.

i still haven't gotten to go to my parent's house since i returned. i went straight home on monday and last night i was too tired... and tonight i'm tired again. i think i just want to go home and spend a quiet night in front of the tv working on a scrapbook on my trip...

so exceedingly tired. must not go to bed now even though it feels like 1:30 in the morning... must stay awake so i can adjust back to EST. ugh. i really wanted to update the blogs but i think i'm just not up for it yet.

i never appreciated my bed so much as i did last night. the featherbed was perfectly fluffed and my down comforter felt like a cloud perched on top of me. i just melted into bed last night, it was so wonderful.

oh. i need to go to bed...

well, i'm back home. :( europe was awesome and my horoscope was true, i didn't want to come back. anyway, i have to go to work (i'm so late already) so i'll just give you the links to the photo albums i threw together. the photos aren't cleaned up and i haven't put any captions on them yet, but here they are in the meantime... London, Dublin, and Edinburgh. so yeah, have a look but remember that these photo albums aren't finished yet...

off to work. kill me. it's gonna be so hella busy and i'm already so hella late...

i'm back home and i'll continue to update this blog with the adventures i had in europe over the next week. but for now enjoy the pics! i threw these albums together so there aren't any captions and the pictures aren't cleaned up but i did post smaller sizes so they'll load quicker... London Pics, Dublin Pics, and Edinburgh Pics. Off to work now (bleh) but I'll update as soon as I can!