No, Officer. I'm NOT Using My Cell Phone While Driving

Last Thursday, I had a TON of errands to run. Ed and I were getting ready to go to the ocean to celebrate a friend's birthday. After school, I made my way to Issaquah to pick up cat food, go to Weight Watchers, hit Costco and go grocery shopping.

After picking up the cat food, I was sitting at a light reading a text message from one of the boys who were in Reno for five days on union business. (Right. "Union business" in Reno for five days and the boys don't "go" together!) They were giving me a hard time because they were there have a GREAT time while knowing I would have to sit in a meeting all day the next day. I happened to look in my rear-view mirror and spotted a motorcycle cop sitting behind me.

Crap.

We now have a law in Washington that says that we can't use our cell phones without a hands free device and it's a primary offense. I carefully stow my cell phone in my purse thinking that if he saw me, I could say, "No, officer. I wasn't using my cell phone. See? It's stowed safely away in my purse!"

The light turns green and I make my left hand turn praying to God that he's not going to pull me over at his first convenience. As I'm turning, I hear this horribly loud honking noise. It's the horn of the motorcycle cop's motorcycle. I'm in a dead panic. He's going to pull me over. I look in my mirror to see which way he's signaling me to move. Only, he's NOT pulling ME over.

At this light, there is a left hand turn lane going north and a free right hand turn going south. Each can go at the same time. The cars just can't cross the rumble strip that separates the lanes until a few hundred yards after the turn. Safety, yo.

Here's what happened. A GIANT, black Suburban was making a right as we were making the left. He ( And I KNOW it was a "he") crossed the rumble strip not even looking OR signaling and merged right into the motorcycle cop nearly crashing him into the median strip. Granted, the cop WAS in his blind spot, but that's the reason the rumble strip is there. So people don't merge and cause accidents. The cop was blaring his horn at this guy, not me. Whew.

I felt kind of bad for the giant, black Suburban guy. He really didn't see the cop. I'm sure he got an ass chewing and a hefty ticket. (While I went on my own merry way, scott free!)