What's wrong with traffic these days?

Let's begin on a positive note. Today we finished up our graduation project and turned it in to the teacher. So now all we have to do is wait for the seminars to finish, do whatever changes that needs to be done and then... finally!
Of course, I still have my thesis to finish up but for now I'm going to bask in the fact that the largest, and possibly most important, part of my education is done. It's been interesting, horrifying, devastating and fun. And God am I glad that it's over!

Now, on to traffic (which I'm not as happy with)... I'm starting to wonder if Monday is the new Friday. I wrote in an earlier post about how people drive like maniacs, callously disregarding any and all traffic rules as well as their own and others' safety, during Fridays. Well, Friday seems to have been extended to encompass Monday as well as Tuesday too so far.

Yesterday I was calmly driving towards the stable, abiding by the traffic rules set by our country's leaders way back. I come up at a junction, having put out the sign for a left turn in advance to make sure my fellow drivers knew where I was headed. I placed my car to the left in my lane and stopped to let a car on the crossing road pass (since it's my duty to give way). Then all of a sudden I see this dark blue Citroën coming up behind me, blinking left as well. And then the bastard places himself (it's gotta be a man, women generally drive in a more safe manner) on MY left, right next to my car. Now, if I hadn't seen him coming this could've led to a rather nasty collision. Anyway, the idiot blasts past me and since I'm not very fond of having to use up all my duct tape to tape up my front bumpers (been there, done that, spit on the T-shirt) I allowed my safety thinking to overrule my sheer burst of anger and murderous rage. I saw him do the same to some other car a few minutes later. Damn idiot.

One would think it would end there. No one got hurt (even though I admit I fervently wished the bastard would drive off a cliff that would suddenly and inexplicably materialise right in front of his car and just as quickly disappear) and I managed to get my temper under control. All's well that ends well, right?

NO. Because today, when driving home, I come to another junction. I've signalled a right turn in advance, placed myself as well as I could and... up comes this beat-up, piss-ugly old pile of rust (possibly a Ford), squeezes in on my right, signalling a right turn. Repeat the scenario from Monday, omitting the part where he did it again since I didn't actually follow for that long. Pick the scenario up at the part with the mysterious cliff materialising in front of the car...

Seriously, what's wrong with people? It's like as soon as they sit down behind the wheel of a car they all turn into Evel Knievel on crystal meth. It's at times like these I wish I had a huge neon-sign of a hand flipping the middle finger to turn on and shine at all the morons out there.

Procrastination at its best

...or worst, depending on how you see it.

I had planned to grab myself by the scruff and finish up my thesis this weekend, only two months too late. But, oh wonder above wonders..., I've yet to even open the damn document. I really need to get it done before the start of June since otherwise I'll have to wait a whole year before I can submit it. But writer's blocks are vicious things. Worse than Lord Voldemort, the whole Twilight-series (books also counted) and a three week hangover. I'll pull some all-nighters this week to get it done. I might not have a lightning-shaped scar and ugly glasses like Harry Potter, but I sure as hell have got painkillers, lighting fluid and a lighter. SO I'll vanquish two out of three bad things and finish up my thesis in a heroic and astounding last minute rescue while the world I saved will be cheering for me from afar (most likely afraid to come too close due to my progressive insanity, but hey, all admiration is good).

On a more positive, and less world domination-like, note: We're making good progress on our graduation project. Now all we have to do is hunt down some politicians, finish up one illustration and two headlines and we're good to go. It's been quite an interesting piece of work filled with some rather uncomfortable and shocking revelations about an environment many people believe is the epitome of peace and quiet. Even I didn't know it could get this bad... And I'm a natural-born cynic/realist who thinks this world is full of shit most of the time.

Lately, I've also come to the realisation that journalists has got to be the most ego-tripping people out there. Last week I filled in for a journalist at the news desk I'm going to work at this summer. It was such a high to see my texts, with byline and all, in the newspaper. And when my last article for that week actually made poster news... *speechless and jumping up and down* I had to go into the kiosk and ask them if they would give me that news poster. They did, those wonderful people, so now I'm gonna put that poster up on my wall. It's my very first one, after all!

The Filial daughter or "How to drive Cat crazy in less than 2 days"

At the moment I'm visiting my parents in the capitol of Sweden, Stockholm (also known as the Hellish pit of overly stressed and rude idiots).

After retrieving my car, which is obviously possessed by the Devil and/or operated through a Windows-based system considering the amount of times it breaks down, from the workshop I felt slightly queasy because of the chilling knowledge that my car would once again cost a fortune to repair. I then packed my bags and drove that same car, with bad brakes on the back wheels, on an 8 hour drive from Umeå to Stockholm. It was nice as long as I could still consider myself being in Norrland. But as soon as I passed a city called Hudiksvall I could feel myself leaving the premises of said region and instead be enveloped by the atmosphere of the southern parts of Sweden. It is hard to describe that atmosphere but I will try my best.

Imagine you're having the worst hangover of your life, you've just woken up next to someone you have no idea who it is, or if it's a man, woman or Chewbacca, and whom you would've been better never having to lay your eyes upon in the first place. Then imagine that while you're lying there, wondering what train drove into your head at full speed (in the process obviously smashing certain vital parts of the facial appearance of whoever it is sleeping next to you), you realise you forgot to turn the sound off your cellphone. As is demonstrated by the sudden slicing pain (similar to undergoing a bypass surgery without anesthesia) of a tone you usually quite like cutting through your pounding head ache and self-loathing.

And when you pick up... It's your mother on the other end. Nagging at you because you forgot that you promised to drive her to her very important meeting. And she nags... and nags... and nags until you start to picture your hands slowly wrapping around her neck, seeing her face turn bluer and bluer. And when she finally hangs up...

Your grandmother calls. And nags at you because you forgot to drive your mother to her very important meeting. Repeat the strangulation scene. Substitute mother for grandmother. Hang up.

And then that creature next to you wakes up, thanking you for a great night, wondering if you'll be meeting again and if you wanna cuddle for a while. And so on. You realise you are really late for work... and stinking like that alcoholic over by the town square. So now you're full of self-loathing, annoyance, anger, murderous thoughts, bad conscience and top that off with stress x 100... Imagine all this and then multiply it all with 10... and you'll come fairly close to what I felt when I came closer and closer to the Hellish Pit called the capitol of Sweden, Stockholm.

Then top all of that off with realising that your parents' computer is slower than a turtle with only one leg and eyes full of cataracts...

Yeah, great, isn't it?

But at least I get to meet up with some old friends I haven't seen for years. And hopefully I'll get something nice for my exam project. So I'm going to live in the hopes that a week isn't very long, I'll be busy most days... and in the evenings I can lock the door to my room and catch up on all those homoerotic novels I've never quite had the time to read.