i hate that stereotype. there's a video that has been getting forwarded in emails not so long ago of various asian women running into things with their cars and i remember being incensed at being lumped w/those women just because i'm asian and female. then today, it happened to me. luckily there was no one with a camera around to take footage of it or else i'm sure i would have made it onto AFV or some youtube montage.
i blame my lack of awareness on the time change (daylight savings). i swear i once read somewhere that the monday following daylight savings is the day there's the most traffic accidents. i was so tired this morning, unable to really adjust to the change in time, finding myself asleep while sitting with Ozzy and snapping awake feeling out of sorts and realizing with consternation that i had lost awareness of where Ozzy was. and then later that day, struggling to make it out the door in under 3 hours... Rob will no doubt be shaking his head when he reads this because he says i'm just not a good multitasker and have trouble with being aware of my surroundings EVERY DAY and not just on the mondays following DLS time. which i wont argue with, that much is true, but i dont usually go running my car into lamp posts. sometimes it's a random mailbox or garage door, but it's because it's in my blind spot...i dont usually hit anything head on. but i digress. i felt really off today and so i think my handicap was certainly magnified by the time change.
so i get the kids loaded up in the car to make a trip to the local school to pick up health forms to take to the pediatrician's office next monday for mimi's well check visit. as i'm loading up the kids, i notice a streaking puddle of blue fluid on the floor of the garage on Rob's side of the garage. i had noticed it for the past few days and every day made a mental note to alert Rob of this...i was worried it might be brake fluid or transmission fluid, so i wanted to be sure to tell him in case he wasnt aware of it. but every day, i kept forgetting. so i told myself to just call him, this minute, so i dont forget to tell him later.
as i'm driving down our street, i begin dialing his number. i'm dialing slowly because i'm trying to think what time is it? is he in his office? or out to lunch? should i call his office number or his cell? which would he answer around this time of day? what time is it anyway?!!! i decided to call his cell and start to slowly punch in the number when suddenly, out of nowhere, i felt the car bump up the curb! i immediately swerved back off the curb, but not before glancing the right front corner of the car off the big street lamp at the end of our street. meanwhile the call is going through and Rob picks up the phone just as i'm bringing the car to a full stop and putting it into park.
i dont even remember what i said to Rob on the phone at that moment, but it couldnt have been sane or logical speak because all i remember Rob saying to me was 'please stop screaming at me' and are the kids in the car with you? are they alright? would you please stop screaming obscenities at the top of your lungs with the kids in the car? mimi knows too many of those words as it is! and then i think he asked me why i was trying to call him in the first place, and i'm like, there's blue fluid on the garage floor!!! and he's like, duh, i know, it's windshield wiper fluid. of course, it would be. i risked my life and the life of my children and the integrity of my car to warn my husband of leaking wiper fluid??? because not having clean windows are of such dire concern?
after i got off the phone with Rob, i decided to drive the car the 500 feet back to the house. it was a terribly embarrassing drive back...almost as bad as walking back out of the hospital when i was pregnant with mimi after thinking i was going into labor and being sent home because it was nothing. making that walk back to the car after being so excited that the baby was coming was just humiliating. and this day, i could just imagine my neighbors seeing me drive away in my pretty bright shiny new car and then not even 500 feet away and less than five minutes later, humbly ambling my broken down car back to the garage, thinkin' 'what the...?" or worse, "that's an asian woman driver...typical."
mimi says, "mom? why are we going back home?"
"because mimi" i sighed heavily, "i dont know if the car is driveable anymore and i dont want to drive it to the school only to have it break down in the middle of a busy road." i explained.
mimi seemed confused.
we get home and she says, "Now, can we play ball outside?"
needing to just get my mind off of what just happened and because it was a gorgeous day outside, i told her it was fine. mimi hopped out of the car, went to fetch her ball, and on the way back she happens to see the car and she halts dead in her tracks, inhales sharply and is like, "OH MY GOOOOOOOD! Mom! what happened to the car?! it's all cracky!"
i threw up my hands and looked heavenward. how do you sit through flying up over a curb and hitting a street lamp and not even know??? she must have been so focused on her dvd in the car earlier that she didnt even know we had crashed. i think she gets it from me: that ability to focus on one thing so exclusively that she loses awareness of anything else happening outside of that.
sadly, i'm sensing some more really bad asian female driving coming our way in about 10 years...guess someone's gotta perpetuate the stereotype.
i blame my lack of awareness on the time change (daylight savings). i swear i once read somewhere that the monday following daylight savings is the day there's the most traffic accidents. i was so tired this morning, unable to really adjust to the change in time, finding myself asleep while sitting with Ozzy and snapping awake feeling out of sorts and realizing with consternation that i had lost awareness of where Ozzy was. and then later that day, struggling to make it out the door in under 3 hours... Rob will no doubt be shaking his head when he reads this because he says i'm just not a good multitasker and have trouble with being aware of my surroundings EVERY DAY and not just on the mondays following DLS time. which i wont argue with, that much is true, but i dont usually go running my car into lamp posts. sometimes it's a random mailbox or garage door, but it's because it's in my blind spot...i dont usually hit anything head on. but i digress. i felt really off today and so i think my handicap was certainly magnified by the time change.
so i get the kids loaded up in the car to make a trip to the local school to pick up health forms to take to the pediatrician's office next monday for mimi's well check visit. as i'm loading up the kids, i notice a streaking puddle of blue fluid on the floor of the garage on Rob's side of the garage. i had noticed it for the past few days and every day made a mental note to alert Rob of this...i was worried it might be brake fluid or transmission fluid, so i wanted to be sure to tell him in case he wasnt aware of it. but every day, i kept forgetting. so i told myself to just call him, this minute, so i dont forget to tell him later.
as i'm driving down our street, i begin dialing his number. i'm dialing slowly because i'm trying to think what time is it? is he in his office? or out to lunch? should i call his office number or his cell? which would he answer around this time of day? what time is it anyway?!!! i decided to call his cell and start to slowly punch in the number when suddenly, out of nowhere, i felt the car bump up the curb! i immediately swerved back off the curb, but not before glancing the right front corner of the car off the big street lamp at the end of our street. meanwhile the call is going through and Rob picks up the phone just as i'm bringing the car to a full stop and putting it into park.
i dont even remember what i said to Rob on the phone at that moment, but it couldnt have been sane or logical speak because all i remember Rob saying to me was 'please stop screaming at me' and are the kids in the car with you? are they alright? would you please stop screaming obscenities at the top of your lungs with the kids in the car? mimi knows too many of those words as it is! and then i think he asked me why i was trying to call him in the first place, and i'm like, there's blue fluid on the garage floor!!! and he's like, duh, i know, it's windshield wiper fluid. of course, it would be. i risked my life and the life of my children and the integrity of my car to warn my husband of leaking wiper fluid??? because not having clean windows are of such dire concern?
after i got off the phone with Rob, i decided to drive the car the 500 feet back to the house. it was a terribly embarrassing drive back...almost as bad as walking back out of the hospital when i was pregnant with mimi after thinking i was going into labor and being sent home because it was nothing. making that walk back to the car after being so excited that the baby was coming was just humiliating. and this day, i could just imagine my neighbors seeing me drive away in my pretty bright shiny new car and then not even 500 feet away and less than five minutes later, humbly ambling my broken down car back to the garage, thinkin' 'what the...?" or worse, "that's an asian woman driver...typical."
mimi says, "mom? why are we going back home?"
"because mimi" i sighed heavily, "i dont know if the car is driveable anymore and i dont want to drive it to the school only to have it break down in the middle of a busy road." i explained.
mimi seemed confused.
we get home and she says, "Now, can we play ball outside?"
needing to just get my mind off of what just happened and because it was a gorgeous day outside, i told her it was fine. mimi hopped out of the car, went to fetch her ball, and on the way back she happens to see the car and she halts dead in her tracks, inhales sharply and is like, "OH MY GOOOOOOOD! Mom! what happened to the car?! it's all cracky!"
i threw up my hands and looked heavenward. how do you sit through flying up over a curb and hitting a street lamp and not even know??? she must have been so focused on her dvd in the car earlier that she didnt even know we had crashed. i think she gets it from me: that ability to focus on one thing so exclusively that she loses awareness of anything else happening outside of that.
sadly, i'm sensing some more really bad asian female driving coming our way in about 10 years...guess someone's gotta perpetuate the stereotype.
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