I can run but can I hide?

On Friday instead of my customary grocery shopping during lunch, I go to the Village of Lawrence to shop for Purim. Luckily for me, there is a parking spot right in front of the store, so I turn on my blinker, pause a bit ( just in case the driver behind me didn't realize what the blinker was for), pull up to the car in front of the spot and that the stupid girl driving behind me is practically on my bumper.

I put my car in reverse, still hopeful that with a few maneuvers I'll get into the spot. But I hear the girl nervously signaling me...I roll down my window and gesture to her that I signaled, and paused, etc and there is a spot and all. Not sure if I point to my head in the process... But after gesticulating I look in the rear view mirror and realize that at this point, there are a few cars behind the girl. In the Village of Lawrence, unlike the Town of Brooklyn, they have parking lots behind the stores (a nuisance with muni meters and all but still better than no parking), so I give up my pursuit of a convenient spot and move on.

Within a minute, I get two text messages, almost simultaneously. I have an uneasy feeling that someone spotted me. The first message says " Was it you?" and then the second one, unnecessarily clarifies " on Central Avenue".

Why, from all my trips to the village, should it be a Brooklyn moment during which I get spotted by one of my dear friends? Bashert, I'm sure...

PS When I asked my friend why she didn't honk hello, she just replied " and miss the entertainment?" I guess life in the village is a bit slow.

One way streets, flashing lights

Yesterday, when I was trying to turn onto my block, I found some truck conveniently parked across the whole street leaving just enough room for a smart car to pass. I waited one light worth of time to see if he'd move and since he didn't, I decided to come around from the other side of the block. Of course, as luck would have it, by the time I came around and started driving towards my house, the truck moved. So there I was, driving my conspicuous car down the wrong way on a one way street.

First it was my not-so-favorite neighbor, staring at me with her eyes and mouth wide open. I gestured her to keep moving ( while slowly driving myself). Then my friend who almost backed out from her driveway at me, she smiled and let me pass. I pulled over by a hydrant and let the traffic pass then continued to my driveway. As I was taking my baby out of his car seat, a young religious couple passed by with the guy looking at me once and his wife staring and staring and staring in the best tradition of boro park and flatbush.

If there was someone directing the traffic next to the truck/ if Eh wasn't late for play group / I wasn't late for work /if I was driving the wrong way just for the heck of it, I probably wouldn't find this whole story amusing. But I'm still grinning remembering the look of disbelief on my neighbor's face- like she never drove in Brooklyn before...

On a different subject- today on the way to work I was driving behind a Lexus with MD plates.
In front of us a school bus was flashing yellow and switched to red. The Lexus kept going.
What is wrong with all these drives who speed up instead of stopping when they see a school bus
flashing red lights!?!?!

Hubby once told me a story that a former school bus driver told him. When this driver started flashing red lights, some yiddishe mentch behind him DROVE ON THE SIDEWALK to pass the school bus! This yidishe mentch didn't have kids, siblings, relatives, neighbors? Or was he just impatient?

Insomnia

I think this is the first night my little bedfellow has slept for 4+ hours straight ( if you don't count a little squeek he made when he turned over). Naturally, it's also the night when my 2 year old darling Eh misplaced her pacifier approximately at the same time the squeek happened. Both situations were resuloved pretty quickly however I've been awake for the past 2 hours (probably to celebrate the ease with which the above mentioned situations were resolved).