I am a stunt driver.

Not really, but I felt like one today. I was heading downtown to drop Sully off at work and noticed an SUV towing a beat up truck going in the opposite direction. They were barreling along at approximately 3.7 mph. When I saw these two vehicles, the thought actually crossed my mind, "it sucks for whoever has to drive behind them... ha!" I must have forgotten that my route home would take me down one lane roads... including the one 3.7 mph person was on.

I dropped my boyfriend off and headed home to crawl back into bed, because it was MUCH too early for someone like me to be awake... it wasn't even 11am yet. (Seriously, who gets up that early??? Nothing starts until noon. Ever.) As I'm sure you can assume, I soon found myself stuck behind the stupid two-vehicle abomination on a one lane road... I was so not in the mood for this.

Now in order to understand how I escaped this annoying situation, first I must explain the route I took. The one lane road passes through two traffic lights about 1.5-2 miles apart from each other. A left turn at the first light is the main entrance of a shopping plaza, a left turn at the second light is a road that runs behind the shopping plaza.

I saw my chance for freedom at the first light. Green, yes! And no cars coming to hinder my left turn, yes! I shifted into 4th gear as I sped into the turn. The shopping plaza was on my right, and I thanked my lucky stars that there were no other cars at the 4-way stop into the parking lot. Racing down the lanes, I narrowly missed a shopping cart and an unruly toddler near the buildings. Then I was behind the grocery store and zooming around the half-width speed bumps to get to the road leading to the second traffic light. I could see my original route down the hill to my right, and I knew that if I missed the light at the bottom of the hill, the damn slowmobile would still be ahead of me. I only had seconds to spare as I kicked it up to 5th gear and broke the speed limit approaching the light. It was green... yellow... almost there.... and I made it!!!! The light turned red above my head as the slowmobile came to a stop mere yards behind me.

I pumped my fist in the air triumphantly. I conquered the annoying traffic jam. I won the race. And I had driven my boyfriend's stick shift (which I just learned barely a month ago) through a maze of parking lots, stop signs and red lights without stalling or bouncing too much. Today was a good day. No matter what else happens, I'll know that I am a certified bad ass behind the wheel of a Del Sol.