Things that make me mad

1) Sloppy work
2) Pain
3) Sloppy work resulting in pain

Well, why shouldn't I go to give blood right before my vacation? I mean, I've been giving regularly for five years now with only one awful stick (and that was, I think, mostly me: wedding stress + dissertation stress + PMS = zero pain tolerance) and one uncomfortable one. Mostly, I'm in, I'm stuck, I'm out. Heck, they've even convinced me to be a platlet donor, and that's a stick in both arms. No problem.

My arm still hurts. Not in an "Oh my God the PAIN" sort of way; really, just an ache. No biggie. But see #3, above. It should not hurt at all. Weirdest and worst, when I took the bandage off last night, the thing reopened. That's never happened before.

I've been told that I have good veins. Maybe that's just the sort of thing phlebotomists tell people as an off-handed insincere compliment, but better than 9 times out of 10, they seem to have no problem getting the damn needle where it's supposed to go. *grumblegrowlspit* Lady with the Dark Curly Hair and Glasses: You do not touch me again. Got it?

Weirdo

So I'm drivin'.

Where I live, there's a right hand turn-only lane that extends a good half-mile or so down a major road. There are no concrete barriers to enforce the turn-only at lights, and many people ignore the restriction. I don't. It's sloppy. (See 'Things That Make Me Mad #1,' below.) But I can generally accept that other people do, and it's one of the boneheaded things I look for before changing lanes. Because invariably, I want to be in that right hand lane after it's done being turn-only.

So I look, and there's a guy doing about 50% better than the speed limit coming up behind me. Yeah, whatever. I put on my turn signal, intended to wait until he blows by and then get over. The intention is important, because it means I'm fairly certain I didn't pull a simultaneous signal-and-drift.

To my immense surprise, this guy puts on his blinker to get into my lane. "What forethought!" I thought to myself. "He realizes that when my speed limit-following butt is in his lane, he can go faster if he is in my lane, because there is a big empty space in front of me. And now I can get over faster." So we do this little piece of car ballet, and all seems right with the world. He zooms on up ahead to the red light, where he has to stop anyway. And changes lanes again, so that he's in front of me.

And then he gives me the finger. Uh, dude? You need to cut back on the salt, or the caffine, or the crack, or something. Not everyone is as lousy a driver as you are. Some of us have a self-preservation instinct.

Apparently, he believed that my turn signal was a death-match challenge, and that I intended to cut his speeding butt off. Maybe turn signals are suffciently rare that I startled him with it? And the finger was like some sort of frilled lizard defensive display, to scare off my turn signalling car?