Gesticulating Girl

In the vicinity of Durham, North Carolina. I just got bitched out by a college girl in the backseat of her friend's car who made it clear from her wild gesticulations that I was, in her opinion, supposed to be in the right hand lane.

The whole time I was wondering why it was that apparently no one in that car had made the connection that perhaps the reason I was going less their desired speed (I was doing 65 in a 55 mph conrtruction zone, by the way) was because of the 20 or so cars in front of me. Which they were now stuck behind, as well, now that they had blasted by that damned truck driver.

Okay, people. Education time. Unless specifically posted, there is no general law that requires that tractor-trailers stay in the right-hand lane. If you notice that most trucks do stay in the right lane, you might ponder that this is something called courtesy. Most truck drivers are very aware that they are bigger, heavier and slower. They tend to try to stay out of the way. This isn't always easy, between the assholes who are desperate to pass the trucks on the left, and the assholes who come screaming down the on-ramps expecting the trucks to move to the left lane and let them out.

You also should not automatically assume that if you come up to the back of a tractor-trailer that it is the sum of all evil and is what has been holding up traffic for the last five miles. You will most often be surprised to discover that there may, in fact, be a lot of traffic in front of that truck.

You should also not assume that if a truck driver is in the left hand lane that he necessarily wants to be there. The reason I was in the left lane was that I got over to let a yuppie in an SUV onto the highway. That yuppie would not let me back over. In fact, I drove for several miles with my right turn signal on, and none of the fine citizens in their automobiles would let me back over. So I watched a procession of cars pass me in the right-hand lane. Including the one with Gesticulating Girl who, while admonishing me for being in the left hand lane, did not note the delicious irony that I had my right turn signal on all throughout her demonstration.

I dunno. Maybe she was in Gesticulation 101 class the day that they lectured on the hidden meanings of turn signals at her college. Maybe her inability to comprehend turn signals is the reason she was in the back seat instead of driving.

I started to flip off Gesticulating Girl. Then I realized that it was quite possible that she wouldn't know what that signal meant, either.