Oblivious

I just got to work, after a run through the Starbucks on Broadway. Much to my delight upon turning into the drive-through I noticed there were only two cars ahead of me, both of which had already placed their orders, so that my own wait for caffiene would be short. So I jauntily moved toward the order kiosk ... and stopped just a few feet shy of it.

The woman in front of me was in a beautiful little white mustang convertible, top down to enjoy the fresh, not-too-cold, not-too-hot morning air. Her hair was cropped short and artfully mussy-spiky, tinted blonde here and there, very classy and modern. And she was oblivious, head down, a good six or seven feet between her and the car in front of her at the pickup window.

I waited.

And sure enough, a few seconds later she rolled forward about a half foot and yes - you guessed it - the hand comes up, cell phone cradled, and plasters itself to the ear. And she stops, one half foot from where she was sitting prior, still not far enough forward for me to be able to order. Since she's looking up now I figure she'll see me in her rearview mirror and move forward, so I wait.

She doesn't.

I toot the horn once, light, polite, and wait.

Nothing.

I toot the horn two times, again quick and polite, no full-on honking, certainly nothing so uncivil as laying on the horn to vent my frustrations in noise.

And the cell-phone-hand comes down and - casually - the woman turns around, sees me, and flashes me a big bright dazzling grin, brilliant white teeth in cherry-red lips. And she just looks at me, grinning.

Trying not to grimace -trying to match her friendly casualty with frindly blankness - I wave my fingers at her in a shooing, "go-forward" motion. Unhurried, she turns back around and rolls forward just enough for me to be able to place my order. There are still several feet between her and the vehicle in front of her, more than enough for her to have moved up further (this "taking up tons of space so that fewer people can order in a timely manner" phenomenon is one I've been meaning to blog about for quite some time now, as pat of some universal Rules of Drive-thru Etiquette).

Happily satisfied that she's no longer blocking me, the cell-phone-hand goes right back up.

Enjoy it while you can. As of July 1, it's hands-free or nothing, and thank gods for that ... Not that it will fix the problem completely - people will still be distracted by their conversations, they'll just have both hands on the wheel when it comes time to swerve and try to avoid the accidents they cause.

Sigh.

As I waited for my drink and watched the woman in the white mustang convertible it occurred to me that despite having been (albeit politely) honked at three times, she seemed completely happy, laid back, and ... well, oblivious. I hated her in that instant, both because she seemed to not have enough basic common sense and alertness to be driving, and becuase that simple small bit of stupidity afforded her escape from the angst of an intelligent person surrounded by idiots. She was joyous, carefree, unruffled and just plain happy, that dazzling bright smile said. It made me think of the stereotyped dumb blondes seen in movies attatched to the arms of rich and powerful men. Beautiful, friendly, smiling ... but no one's home.

Sometimes, like those moments while I watched Little Miss Can't Mess Up My Day, I wish I were stupid. Just a little bit - not a moron, just a bit dim. Sometimes I think I might be less stressed and more able to let things go, relax, and just enjoy life if I weren't so simply smart. And I'm not a genius. I'm not top of the class. There are plenty of things that go over my head, that I juts don't think of, but compered to the seeming vast majority of the people I encounter on a daily basis, I'm damn-near freakin' omnipotent.

I think I need my own little shred of obliviousness now and then, to counter the real world.