At first, what got my attention was the flick of her wrist. I noticed movement in the car next to me. She was smiling and her cheeks were flushed and vibrant, not at all what you would expect to see during a frustrating hour of idle traffic on I-495.

There in the confines of her little car she was singing, smiling and gesturing, her breathing sped up and slowed with the song that had captured her in this moment. I could not hear the words, but what she was singing must have inspired her enough to forget the troubles of this busy highway. I inched my vehicle forward with the traffic, trying to keep her in my sights for a moment longer. I could see her eyes, they were animated and bursting with life, they sparkled as she lowered her head to what was surely a sultry line. Her movements were mesmerizing. I could feel every emotion through the window of her car. It was almost like she was possessed by that music; it held her and allowed her respite from the hostile environment around her. Her car crept along with the traffic and she never missed a beat. She did not seem to notice anyone; the audience was invisible and perhaps for her, nothing else mattered. But for me, those few minutes of energy and life reminded me that even in the most unlikely environment you can find a little time to live life.

I was in traffic today and saw,

Passion.

Here in Atlanta we have HOV lanes for vehicles with two or more occupants. While stuck in traffic, which is not uncommon here, I happened to notice a young lady in the HOV lane who had been pulled over by local authorities. She was in a bright yellow Volkswagen beetle and sure enough, strapped to the passenger seat was an adult sized blow up doll. Now I'm willing to bet the blow up doll doesn't count as a second passenger and she received a lane violation ticket. This might have worked had the convertible top not been down and the windows up.

Ker-ching! This dude is doing a roaring trade! I bet he'll be finishing work early today; lucky man. I had observed him previously getting out of his van and setting up on the corner of the adjacent street with his colleague; whom has since disappeared.

Like any shrewd-thinking business man, the vendor promptly pushed his hotdog trolley closer to the queue of cars and was rewarded with an immediate half-mile stretch of customers he hoped were seeking solace from a little, shall we say, 'comfort-eating'. The delicious smell of fried onions soon smothered the air and guaranteed to make everyone feel hungry, even if we had eaten breakfast less than an hour ago. Forget the neon signs, all that red ketchup and yellow mustard looks colourful enough against the grey city concrete - it's the only advertising he needs. Feeling depressed, want to weep? The paper napkin should come in handy too. Food psychology at its best - this man is a GENIUS!

Three nuns in the car to my right - wearing sunglasses. Never seen that before, very trendy. They keep avoiding my gaze in that shy, modest way that nuns do. Bless them. Fiddling nervously with their rosary beads, I guess they must be running late for morning worship as now they're gathering up their belongings and attempting the rest of the journey on foot. How are they going to explain this one to Mother Superior?

Next day, and another traffic jam! The radio reports the local headlines:

Hot Dog trolley hijacked and vendor found restrained inside van!
City Bank robbed by three fugitives dressed as nuns!

Ha! Realisation dawns. Just goes to show how appearances can be deceptive. This time, I'll keep my eyes down and bury my head in the latest horror novel, "Unspoken Screams".

“Watch where you’re going, moron!!! No, not you, sweetheart, I’m talking about this idiot behind me. Why don’t people pay attention??? What? When did that happen? Did the carpet …? Yes, I know. It’s only a year old and ... Christ, watch out, imbecile. Yeah, YOU buddy! Go screw yourse ... you’re kidding, the entire room? Now I have to call the insurance company. No, of course I’m not blaming you, dear. But a hot water tank ... holy cow, look OUT, bonehead!!! Pick a lane, pal! What’s wrong with people these days? A hot water tank doesn’t just leak, honey; not unless ... geez, look at THIS guy, right on my bumper ... unless you forget to drain it every year, and we drained it just - uh, when did your sister get married? Eight years ago? That’s impossible. Didn’t we ... dammit, watch what you’re doing! Move, lady!!! I swear we just got back - oh, that’s right, it was about eight years ... holy crap, what are YOU doing? No, not you, this guy ... yeah YOU, jerk! Go ahead, pull over, I’ll kick the sh … of COURSE not, honey. The hot water tank was old anyway. And we have insurance to cover ... LOOK OUT!!! My god, did you see that? No, of course you can’t, honey. This lady ahead of me pulled over into my lane, and now she’s going ten miles under the limit. HURRY UP!!! Drive, for Christ’s sake! Honey, I’ll stop by the hardwa ... now what do YOU want, buddy? Can’t you see this woman in front of me? It’s her damned fault. Well, go around me, pinhead!!! I’ll stop, honey, don’t worry about it. Oh, Jesus, just pass me, dimwit.

Why don’t people just get off the phone and drive?!!?”

A gentleman, trying to abide by the traffic laws, put his vehicle in reverse to scoot back behind the stop bar at the red light. However, when the light changed he forgot to return the vehicle to drive before applying the gas. Luckily no one was behind him.

For reasons unknown to me, a gentleman driving a station wagon had a helmet on. He looked at me as if I were the odd one.

While sitting at a red light, I watched a woman try to get her bumper unhooked from another car’s bumper which she had struck. I believe that she intended to free her vehicle and flee the scene of the accident. A wrench was thrown into her plan when all the tugging on her bumper in order to become free from the other car caused her bumper to fall to the ground . . . license plate attached.

An ambulance approached the intersection and almost all traffic stopped to let it pass. Slowly approaching the intersection was a car with a female driver who was chatting on her cellular phone and oblivious of the situation ahead of her. The ambulance crew saw it coming and shook their heads. The driver of the pickup truck, whose rear end she was about to strike saw it. He sat and shook his head and chuckled as he could do nothing about the inevitable. BANG! No one was injured.

There is a huge lighted sign displaying traffic conditions over the highway on my way to work. The sign now says “Distracted driving is deadly driving”. The sign then flashes the number of lives lost on our state’s highways this year. Each person that passes under it takes their eyes off the highway long enough to read that sign.

I saw a lady attempting to eat salad in her lap with a fork while going 80 miles an hour down the interstate.

I was driving on the motorway and came to a grinding halt. There were ongoing roadworks, but, as usual, there was no sign of any workers. Just a horde of cones telling us we weren't allowed to use the fast lane and must merge together to bypass a perfect good piece of road. "What a waste of tax-payers money and time!?", I thought to myself.

I was queuing for about 15 minutes, when, atthe side of the road I noticed one of the lit messaging signs with a small blue sign attached to the pole. As I approached it, my feelings for how badly the government spend our money grew as I read the small sign.

It read "This sign is not in use."

Does this mean that when they do start using the sign, they have to send someone out to remove the sign that says the sign isn't in use... or do they just add a sign that reads "Thats not true. It is in use."?

To save time they could just not put the sign there, so that when it's not displaying any message, we can assume the sign isnt being used. Alternatively, they could add a sign that says "If this sign is displaying a message, it's in use. If it's not, then it's not in use."

Additionally, you can only read the sign that says the sign is not in use when you are very near to the post. Therefore, if it was in use and you hadn't read the sign, you wouldn't be able to read the message anyway. Useful.

Dammit, I was late. And that rain couldn’t stop. I was on the car, but my mind was on the work. Those days, it’s seems like everyone wants to go on in the same time. Where is the boring CD's when you need then?
When you are stopped, nothing to do, you begin to notice things. Suddenly, the street you pass every day, seems so familiar as aircraft engine. I just didn't know that road anymore.
My eyes stopped on a woman. Under the umbrella, she grinned. She just grinned at me. Like there was much more joy inside of her. It’s amazing that when you are on a bad mood, the happiness of other people annoys you. But that woman grinned. It wasn’t like she was seducing me, it was more like she intent to brighten my rainy day.
To not look like a jerk, I forced a smile, kinda saying “Sucks, isn’t it?”. (I don’t know if that was kind, but come on... I tried.) But she just kept looking at me. Grinning.
I kept watching her for a couple of minutes, wondering what would made her that happy. And wishing. Wishing I had that kind of peace inside of me. I haven't had peace in a long time.
The moment of trance faded when I heard a horn behind me, shouting me to move forward. I gave one last glance at the woman, and moved on.
And yes… yes, she did bright my day, if that was her purpose. Now, I think is involuntary, but… Every day when I pass on that road, especially on a rainy day, my eyes seek that grin, hoping that someday, I can be that happy. And hoping that someday, I would bright an unknown’s rainy day.

On my way to the office this morning, I walked to the bus stop, I fell asleep on the bench and a group of kids stole my lunch, I woke up as they were running. I called the cops who laughed because a group of children had stolen my lunch, when they took my information they left laughing then pulled into dunkin donuts across the street. While I was on the bus, a man walked up to my face and threatened me, wouldn’t have done anything about it except for the fact he knew my name and my families names, I called the cops who laughed because someone who lives in the area knew my name, they took my information and forwarded it to the police station, speaking very clearly and suggesting paranoia. At the coffee shop across from my office I noticed a guy in a truck that I had never seen before. He looked relieved to be there. I called the cops who laughed because I had called them too many times before, and went into the restaurant next door, they even knew my name, I didn’t know who they were. As I sat in the coffee shop and chuckled about the days events, I waved to my friend as she walked into the office building , there was a line of cars nearly two miles long waiting to get into the parking garage, it was fun to watch them be late and I giggled about it. Then the truck bomb went off…

I turned the corner hit a stop sign got out of my car looked at it, and kept going, it gave it red streak, I had 20 min! Finally got to the light then hit a cyclist, after helping him I kept driving, I had six minutes! Traffic was horrible, his bike gave it a green streak, when I got to my office and out of my car, I remembered it was Christmas.