Interstate bumper sticker musings...

I have a long commute. 45 miles from my house to my job...98% of it major interestate. 3 lanes, bumper to bumper most mornings...3 lanes bumper to bumper most evenings.

When we first moved here nine years ago, as Hubby and I are careening up the interstate to my job interview...I covered my eyes with my hands as we careened under and over HUGE overpasses and swore up and down I could not do this! There is no way!

I was a country bumpkin, raised on a one lane road for crying out loud. I could drive an interstate, but only the kind with like two lanes of polite hillbillies going to work...while winding around tractor trailers doing like 15mph UP mountains...there was NO way I was going to be able to handle rush hour on a MAJOR interstate.

Here I am 9 years later, with the Toddler in the backseat happily munching goldfish, and I am careening with the best of them. No big deal right?! I'm a big girl now!

To amuse myself I add up license plates...yes I do. Hubby finds it really annoying. Or I decipher the infamous VA personalized license plates...some are just stupid. SHT4LCK Either that is Shit For Luck or Shoot for Lick... PHAT...now that is a good story. Green beat up minivan, overweight old dude with Santa Claus beard, and his license plate read PHAT.

There are a gazillion of them. Some I see a LOT...we're on the same schedule. I'd wave, but they'd just look at me funny. Like the lady at Target with the WICCAN license plate in the red Honda. I see her three or four times a week. I pointed that out as I parked next to her. She looked freaked out and got in her car quickly. Really? I should be the one freaking out! She's a Wiccan for crying out loud! Where's the Holy Water! LOL! She was afraid of meeeeee.... :) And this was BEFORE Toddler. And to make it clear...I am not afraid of Wiccans. I actually looked into it when I was in college. I just wasn't too keen on the whole diety thing, just like other religions...but I digress.

So last night I get behind a chick in a car with a nursing license plate. Apparently she is a RN of some sort...but it was her bumper stickers.

They were all anti-war. Nasty ones. Which shocked me. People who look like THAT (older lady, my mom's haircut, seemed really nice from 10 feet away at 70mph) don't have angry anti war bumper stickers on their car.

I'm following her because it is raining. And my blood starts boiling. My Husband spent a year over there helping rebuild that hot mess. He didn't go out breaking down doors and setting homes on fire. He worked on a rebuilding. I had to raise our son for a year by myself so that he could do his job!

Had she ever put her husband on a plane with a four day old infant in her arms knowing that she may never see him again, and if good fortune rains upon us, that it will be another year at least? Has she ever done that? Has her heart every stopped every time a she hears a car pull into the driveway and realizes she hasn't heard from her spouse that day? Has she had to webcam Thanksgiving and Christmas? Has she ever had to tell her husband about things their baby was doing that he couldn't see? Has she ever had to talk in code about what her spouse was doing for the next few days and why she wouldn't be hearing from him? Has she ever counted down the homecoming only to have it yanked out from under her? Has she ever just cried because of it all? I have no idea...maybe that's why she hates the war.

I eased into the other lane and tried to get next to her. I am focused on wanting to give her a piece of my mind. Like that is really possible at 70mph in traffic...All the while Kiddo is munching away on his goldfish and making thunder noises.

I keep getting next to her, but I cannot get in front of her. I wanted her to see my Army license plate. I wanted her to see my Support our Troops sticker. I wanted her to see my combat boots Army spouse sticker. I wanted her to KNOW that she had pissed me off. I really wanted to run her off the road and shake her.

The lane opens and I jump in front, but then she decides to jump back over and be in my lane. She probably didn't want to see my stickers right?

That's fine honey...so I ease back over, and make her follow me. I kept my speed down just enought to where she had to SEE those stickers. She had to read them, and scowl and get all pissed off. I kept looking in the rearview with this odd feeling that I was mooning her by forcing her to look at the rear end of my car.

And I don't think it made one bit of difference in her thinking.

And yes, I was acting like an idiot with a kid in the backseat.

That's why we are America right?

And also why I may need some therapy.

It's like the day I was driving home, a few years ago, long before Kiddo and I passed a mini van. They had drawn MY DADDY IS COMING HOME! in window marker all over that van. WELCOME HOME DADDY! WE LOVE OUR DAD!

The van is covered in Support our Troops magnets, and American Flags,and I see the front passenger seat with its huge bunch of yellow roses, and I just start bawling right there as I honk my horn and wave like a crazy woman.

Their daddy was coming home...

Been there, done that....going to find a box of tissues now.