a rough wednesday for friday

i recently saw the movie "crash" and sat through an interesting opening scene where don cheadle tries to make a case for traffic accidents in los angeles. "It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In LA, nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something." yeah, that's great. wonderful. sentimental. thanks, don. but in this city of completely irrational traffic patterns, the real reason people crash is because when the opportunity to reach a speed above 7mph presents itself, you take it- because everyone in la knows that in five seconds a butterfly in the amazon could flap its wings and cause a five car pile up with a semi on the 405 south and when that happens, you might as well accept the fact that you're just going to spend the rest of your life on the freeway. pack a snack. so you have thousands of people speeding, trying to outrun a potential traffic accident so they can make it home in time to watch "house" next tuesday and it's stressful. and yesterday was no different. the 405 south was fine for the first 13 miles of my commute... decent speeds- 60-70mph. Friday, (my car) was really enjoying the freedom of the open road. and then the traffic stops. and it starts. and then it stops. and then it starts and we all move and then the person in front of my slams on the brakes a little faster than i would have liked, and i manage to stop with a good inch between our bumpers and i was in a process of self congratulation and breathing a sigh of relief, when i heard the car behind me screech to a halt... and slam into me. do you know how much i hate the sound of my car coming into contact with another car? a lot lot lot. so i weave across five lanes of bumper to bumper traffic and pull over. and i look at the car and it's fine, and the other car weaves across the traffic and gets out and her car is fine. and she's shaking and i'm shaking and we just give each other this look like "i'm so glad we didn't do any damage because i can't afford to pay my insurance deductible". and we shook hands and went home. i laughed for a long time... mainly because if there are any problems with my car, i haven't washed it since i bought it and her license plate number is probably stamped in the dirt on my back bumper. so there you go. my first la crash. and it had nothing to do with my latent desire for physical contact. suck on that, don cheadle.