The family was headed to the United Center tonight for a surprise showing of Toy Story 3 on ice for AKV. We had some time to kill while he napped in the car and the Wifey had to go to the bathroom. I spotted a Starbucks on a corner and suggested she go there. She agreed so I saw that the corner was open and chose to drop her off at the top of the corner as there were walls of icy, dirty snow every where else except at the top where someone had shoveled the ice away. Seeing that Jill was pregnant, I didn't want to risk her going over those walls.
As I stopped to let Jill out, a cabbie pulled behind me after making a turn on the same street I was turning onto. I positioned the car as far as possible to the right of the street to let traffic through. He could've gone around me. But no - he pulled his cab into an awkward position behind the left part of my car and then honked. At first, I was ok. The cabbie is just being a Chicago cabbie - obnoxious and just in a hurry. He hadn't seen Jill getting out of the car just yet so he just assumed I was being a dumb driver and making his turn harder. Jill opened the door and got out. Then he pissed me off - he honked on the horn and laid on it for a while. I lost it.
I rolled down the window, looked back, made eye contact with him and said, "Hey! Can't you see I'm dropping off someone here, fucker. Go around!". I was hotat this point and could feel the adrenaline pumping into my bloodstream. I had the feeling that if the dude wanted to fight, I wasn't going to back down this time. In fact, I almost looked forward to it in a strange way. Perhaps I wanted to get my ass beat or I just wanted to get an emotional release by laying waste to someone else. I don't know but I do know that logic had pretty much escaped the event horizon of this hateful black hole I was making.
Th cab driver then proceeded to roll up next to me car. My mind raced to what in the car I could use as weapons; keys, snow brush, and my fists were the first things that came to mind. The dude rolled down his window and I immediately yelled, "You didn't see that I was dropping someone off? What's your problem?" The guy then replied, "You are dropping people off in the wrong way." I immediately saw red. I don't know how to drop off people?!! Me?! A cab driver, who is in a league of people that consistently break traffic laws during the course of their shift is telling me I am not dropping people off. As usual, time slowed down and these words came out of my mouth:
"FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT BULLSHIT!"
He pulled away as I started cursing at him and then what did he do? He parks his car in a illegal tow zone so he can run in and get some coffee. He was angry at me because I took "his spot" in front of the shop. I was ready for him to get out of the car to confront me and that when this childish behavior was broken - by the sounds of AKV saying, "Daddy, I want to get down."
I stopped, turned to him, and said, "OK sweetie. It'll be just a minute." My son was woken up by the foolish nature of our actions. I didn't want him to see me get hurt or hurt someone else. That wouldn't be a good example to set for him. So, just like that I drove off to drive around the block to cool off. If I got out of the car, it would've been bad all around. I could've gone to jail, been hurt/killed, or worse.
After I picked up the Wifey and told her what happened after she got out, she informed me she saw him in line waiting for his coffee. I then told he was lucky AKV was there to stop me from acting a fool. And I was lucky too that my son kept me from having an "n" moment.
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