Daily Dose of Davis: To the Guy Driving the Truck Behind Me on Bryan Road Yesterday Who Flipped Me Off

Dear Guy Driving the Pick-Up Truck Behind Me on Bryan Rd Yesterday,

I'm the lady whom you flipped off yesterday afternoon while driving down Bryan Road. I know you were mad at me, but the situation was not exactly what it seemed. I feel like I need to explain myself.

You see, it's been a LONG couple of weeks with four kids at home. It's 104 degrees outside so no one can go out and burn any energy off. Apparently, no one knows how to entertain themselves without me creating and providing some sort of activity. So, for the better part of 2 weeks they have done nothing but fight with one another all day and all night. It never stops. That can wear down one's nerves.

I'm like a bucket. Every complaint, every fight, every whine, every attitude fills me up just a little more. I'm not ever sure what is going to make the bucket tip, but when it does it can get ugly. After hours of driving to and from activities yesterday in the 104 degree heat, my children declared that they were completely starving (even though they had Chick-Fil-A two hours earlier). I didn't want to hear them complain for the next 45 minutes until we got home, so I decided to run by McDonalds. The McDonalds drive thru was extremely slow. They ended up getting our order all wrong, but I didn't notice this until we pulled away. I was already getting annoyed. Then whining and complaining started. Someone threw a fry and chaos ensued.

I'm not sure if you have tried driving down highway 70 on a Friday afternoon by the airport heading into rush hour traffic in the heat with a McDonald's food fight happening in your car, but it's fucking annoying and hard to do. By the time we reached Bryan Road they were fist fighting about who had more McDonalds napkins in their possession. Yes, you heard me right. They were fighting over who had more USED napkins. Oh my God. I am losing it.

I said, "Stop fighting!" I said, "Enough! IT'S OVER!" I might as well have not been speaking at all because everyone completely ignored me. Being ignored made me hit my breaking point. (About this time, you were pulling out behind me onto Bryan Rd.)

I hit the center console of my car with my fist and screamed, "God Damn it! Shut up!" I am sure I was being overly theatrical. I was vacillating between looking in my rearview mirror to make eye contact with the children in the back seat and looking over my shoulder to yell.

You pulled up next to me on my driver's side. You honked your horn at me then flipped me off. I was completely stunned for a minute. I had no idea what I had done to cause you to be so upset with me. Then it hit me. Because I kept turning around to yell and kept looking in my rear-view mirror, you must have thought I was yelling at you. I tried to roll my window down to tell you that my theatrics were not directed at you, and that I had just been yelling at my kids for fighting over used McDonalds napkins. Before I could say anything you flicked me off again and yelled, "Bitch!"

I suppose you were right. I was being a bitch, although it was not directed at you. For the misunderstanding, I am sorry. For yelling at my kids about who had more gross, dirty, used McDonalds napkins, I am kind of sorry, but not really.