The Non-Confrontation

A break from the confession today, I will pick that up on Monday.  Today I want to talk about something that happened to me this morning at the Corral Center that shook me up.

My typical weekday begins with me getting up (sort of) and heaving myself a foot to the right of my bed, onto a chair in front of my computer.  I then whittle away an hour or two reading forums, facebook, news, etc... This morning I did just that, and decided about an hour into it that I was a bit peckish.  Since I had run out of eggs, I decided to make a trip to Subway get a breakfast sandwich, and also stopped off at the video game store to see if they had a new magazine.  It didn't play out quite as I had anticipated, and being someone who very much likes to adhere to routine and follow a determined plan, this didn't bode well for the rest of my morning and afternoon.  Bear with me here, there is a point to all this.

So I throw on my clothes, and head downstairs.  I've been expecting my new pair of Buddy Holly glasses to arrive in the mail for the last couple of weeks, so I grab the mail key on my way out and check the box.  No glasses - its taking considerably longer than I expected, I'll have to look into this.  I head towards my car and then stop as a thought hits me - I should bring the mail key back inside in case my room mate needs it.  Normally I'd just pocket it and return it later, which I'm sure would not be problematic, but the other day he was looking for it and I had forgotten it was in my pocket, so I am being vigilant to put it back in its place.  Alright, so I walk back and put the key on the table.

Back to my car, I sit down, assume the driving position, and turn the key.  I look to my left and see Jordan and Meghan walking through the parking lot towards their car.  They live in the same complex as me.  I wave, and as they approach Jordan mock shoots me, and I pretend to be hit by the bullet.  He laughs, and I laugh.  I open my window and say hi, standard 'in-passing' conversation ensues, and I think to myself "Well, this is a good start!"

I hit reverse and pull out of the parking lot.  Driving down Braecrest, I am looking forward to the warm sandwich and cold chocolate milk that awaits me.  I turn left onto 18th street, and drive down the hill.  Nothing exciting to speak of here.  One more left at the stop light, then a quick right and I am in the parking lot in front of EB Games, they know me there.  What can I say, I like video games.  I get out of my car and head towards the door, digging through my unnecessarily crammed pocket to make sure my debit card is there.  Uh-oh... no debit card.  I continue to rifle through my pocket, identifying pill bottles and key rings and coins and things, just to be sure I didn't "overlook" it.  Nope, still no card.  Alright, maybe I left it in my backpack.  I walk back to my car, and check the pockets.  No luck.  "Oh well," I say to myself "I've got just enough change for my sandwich and milk."  I decide to forgo the magazine and just hit up subway, no big deal.

I start my car and am about to put it in drive, when a glint of white catches my eye.  Stuck between the seat belt fastener and e-brake is my debit card!  Well happy day!  I hesitate momentarily, as I am already prepared to go to subway, but I turn off the ignition and end up going back to the store.  I say hi as I walk in, and see that the new magazine is not out yet anyways.  I've missed the last couple so I ask the guy if they have back-issues.  He says not that they can sell.  They have to tear off the covers and send them back to the distributor.  Personally, I don't really get that, but hey do what you have to do I guess.  "No problem," I say, and head out of the store.  Back in my car, I pull forward and turn left to proceed to Subway.  This is when things get a bit dicey.

I'm a little bit on the wrong side of the road I guess, but its a parking lot and its hard to tell really where one side ends and the other begins.  There isn't anyone approaching anyways.  I look to my left, just in time to see a young male in a car pull a sharp U-turn in the middle of the parking lot, and nearly run into me.  Like I said, I 'm sort of in the middle, so I have to swerve to get out of his way, and he has to jam on the brakes.  Crisis averted.  I'm a little perturbed though, so I give him a "What the hell" kind of look and wave my hands a bit.  Yeah, probably shouldn't have, but I wasn't particularly rational at the time.  So this is when I really get a good look at him.  He's wearing an oversize peaked cap, and clothes I suppose I would describe as "faux gangsta".  He looks pretty angry.  He starts mouthing words at me, I can't really decipher them, but I'm pretty sure I get the gist.  Just keep driving, I'm thinking to myself, no need for confrontation.  I look behind me and see he has proceeded to get out of his car and is continuing to holler profanities at me, and angrily waves his middle finger in the air with arms upraised in a rather textbook display of dominance.

At this point I'm a little shook up - I don't handle this sort of thing very well.  My flight response is pretty forceful here, which I would say is a good thing.  I might have been able to hold my own in a fight, but to be honest he looked pretty motivated to let me have it, and I didn't really feel like getting physical about it.  Mostly I'm just wanting to get out of the parking lot at this point, not really thinking about breakfast anymore, but I've got the vague notion that I'll go to A&W instead.  Then it dawns on me that they don't serve breakfast after 11.  So these thoughts are running through my head as I drive up the hill, and I look in my rear view mirror only to see the same car racing up the hill behind me. 

Now my heart starts pounding pretty hard.  I'm not sure what to do, but after double checking I am positive it is the same guy, in the same car, accelerating much more quickly in a bid to catch up to me.  My instinct says to turn onto Braecrest and head towards home, which I do.  He continues to follow me in a tailgating fashion, and I rethink my destination.  The last thing I want to do is lead an angry pretend gangster to my home.  So I drive past the parking lot and keep on going.  I decide to drive towards the police station.  Classic worse-case scenario thinking here.  If this guy just keeps following me, I'm at least going to lead him towards law enforcement.  Looking back on it, I chuckle to myself - probably a major overreaction, but a good number of none-to-pleasant scenarios had been running through my head, most of them resulting in significant damage to my car, and myself.

As luck would have it, before I even reached 1st Street, a police car came into view in the oncoming lane.  This relieved me a bit, although I did consider that there was really no way to communicate my concern to the officer.  So I leaned into my window, adopted my best "something is up" face, and communicated in the only way I could think to - I waved.  I don't even think the cop looked at me, let alone read into my not so subtle expression or noticed my waving hand, but as it turned out his attention wasn't going to be necessary.  As I passed by the entrance to the trailer court, I noticed my tailgaters turning signal turn on, and began to put two and two together.  He was just going home - of course, not without further intimidating the schmuck who he clearly assumed was responsible for the near collision, and whose reaction he did not take all too kindly.

It took a while for my heart to stop angrily thumping against my chest, and my hands continued to shake for a good couple of miles, but eventually I calmed down enough to feel hungry again.  I decided to go to the Subway by the Trans-Canada instead - worst case scenario thinking placed my former follower directly outside of the Subway in the Corral Center, just waiting for me to naively return for my breakfast.  At Subway I sat in my car for a few minutes, checking all directions to make sure he hadn't somehow followed me up there.  When I was fairly certain my rational mind was correct, I stepped out and stood up on some shaky legs, and went inside to get my sandwich.  I had to wait for a large order to be made, so for a few minutes I furtively glanced about the parking lot, so as to be prepared for his return.  Every car that pulled into the lot made me jump a little, but they were all driven by senior citizens.  Of course I knew I was acting crazy, but that didn't stop me from being hyper-vigilant.  That's just how I operate I guess.  If I'm aware that my behavior is paranoid and irrational, but I still act paranoid and irrational, am I really paranoid?  Or am I just irrational?  Best not to answer that question.

So now I'm at home, having enjoyed my Bacon and Egg sub on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread, with my chocolate milk stowed safely in my gastric passageways.  I still have a bit of a sense that he's going to find my car, or track me down at work -- my favorite worst case scenario is the one where I'm minding my own business behind the desk at the gym, when he comes in with a gun and shoots me dead, in front of all of the people on the cardio equipment.  That would be an exciting way to go out I suppose. 

I can't help but go over the events that led up to the near accident, and all the random things that happened that ended up timing my pulling out of the parking spot so precisely.  Had I just pocketed the key, no near collision.  Had I not gone back into the store, none of it would have happened.  So many steps along the way, and take away just one of them, and I wouldn't have had a story to write here today.  It makes me think about how uncertain life can be, and how easy it can be to get caught up in routine and expectation.  This morning wasn't my idea of a grand ol' time, but it was a hell of a lot more exciting than my standard breakfast jaunt, and it gave me a story to tell.  Maybe I could be a little more proactive about creating some excitement in my life, after all I've only got this one, and you never know when an angry pretend gangster from the prairies is going to chase you down and bust a cap in your bumper.  Just something to think about I guess.  By tomorrow I'll have pretty much forgotten about the whole incident, and I'm already laughing at the seriousness with which I perceived the situation at the time, but I thought it was a pretty good example of how I deal with threatening circumstances, and maybe, just maybe, a bit of an interesting story.

Signing off for today, back Monday with more of my confession!  Thanks for reading, as usual, feel free to leave a comment below!