oh, school bus.

i ran a red light today.

okay. i know what you're thinking. i had that blog forever ago about how everybody's a terrible driver except for you and only you have the perfect speed. and how i consider myself to be a good driver and get extremely emotional over texting and driving.

i know.

this is the part where i justify some stuff.

first off. i was not speeding. and i was paying attention. i was sitting in a left turn lane behind a school bus.

here in lies my first question. on my way to take my first quiz of second semester spanish, why am i sitting behind a school bus in a left turn lane? it's noon. on july sixth. i feel like school buses should be parked in the bus lot behind my former high school and that bus drivers should either be a) sleeping b) eating lunch or c) partying it up. i feel like bus drivers, especially the cool old lady ones that are rather rotund, are seriously awesome at parties.

more justification.

i was running late. i got distracted while eating my cheese bagel (i have an addiction) for lunch. last night my swim team hosted a meet and i was there for a good... four hours. it was hot. it was so hot that i got nauseated and had to take off my back brace. that thing just soaks up sunlight and stores it like a happy paper bag. my feet were hurting. i dropped the entire lifeguard stand (about a hundred pounds) on my left foot. it's currently swollen and in pain and i'm icing it. i didn't study before i went to bed. i didn't have the energy.

thus, after work this morning and a nice shower, i sat down at my kitchen table and made all the flashcards i promised myself i'd make over the weekend. i love procrastination. about halfway into my studying of the uses of "tan ... como" and "tanto ... como" (insert noun or adverb here ... ) i ate my cheese bagel, my almost entire pint of blueberries (that's an addiction too) and my tortilla chips. then i kept studying and studying and my parents came home. then they quizzed me on my flashcards like good parents. then i had to brush my teeth and find a shoe to stuff my swollen left foot into.

thus, i left late. and i had sat through this left turn arrow behind this gigantic school bus, numbered 211, for two light cycles already and i was impatient. i was not going to be late for my quiz. i have a fear of being late. i despise being late. i am a very punctual person.

this does not give me the right to drive like a maniac. but i didn't, i swear!

i do not have super powers, therefore i was not able to use special x-ray vision to see through the bus. maybe if i had been driving my dad's thirteen year old minivan (the crimson avenger!) i could have, but my car is pretty teeny. while listening to the national, i sat behind this bus and figured it was maybe second in the queue to go.

i decided, after sitting through this light twice, that the bus was far enough ahead that i would just go. the light would probably be green turning yellow. it might turn red while i was in the intersection, and i would be okay with that. the only thing around that looked incriminating was a taxi. running yellow lights happens. we all do it. sometimes it's unavoidable.

when that bus moved forward, i moved forward with it. i jammed my head to my music. i tailed that bus. i was going to follow it through. the light would still be green.

that light was pretty damn red by the time i got a look at it.

i zoomed right through it.

at first i was mortified. i was exactly like that driver that i always called an asshole when they decided that running a light at a turn light was a decent thing to do. now i was that asshole.

as soon as i called myself an asshole, i laughed incredibly hard. i was an asshole. and i was going to enjoy it.

i don't really think there's a point to this blog. i didn't decide to write it until i was driving home from work fifteen minutes ago, and i ran this light at noon. i feel like there should be a moral lesson or something. maybe i should feel bad about running a red light. the truth is, i really don't. i was sick of sitting behind that school bus and i would be damned if i sat through that light cycle another time.

i made it to my spanish quiz on time, if you were wondering. it was the hardest spanish quiz i've ever had. i forgot all the spanish holidays and that part was not matching. it was fill in the blank without a word bank.

but boy did i ace the "tanto ... como" part.

post script: texting and driving story of the day. on my way home from work the lady i was sitting next to was texting at the stop light. i can understand this. i've been guilty of at least looking at my phone during this boring minute and a half of red light halting. but when she had the green arrow and she kept texting and texting and texting... well. that makes me slightly angry.

for the win: it is now illegal to text and drive in indiana. reinforcement power!