speeding tickets are for chumps

In the past few weeks, I've known a lot of people who got speeding tickets. Some were unfair. Some completely justified. Some IMHO were necessary to give the person a wake up call. But none of them were me. And then it occured to me...I've never had to really deal with a ticket. Though, I've had some close calls....

*Flashback music*

I almost killed a cop once. It was November of 1997. I'd been driving solo for maybe 2 weeks now. One night, as I drove down Taunton Blvd, I saw police lights in the opposite late. Someone must have been pulled over. Well, one of the only things I remembered from my Drivers Ed. course was that you shouldn't "rubber neck". So I just kept driving normally. AND THEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.

Here's what I didn't see: I didn't see that there was an accident. I didn't see the line of cars in the opposite lane that were stopped behind the police car (they were on the other side of a hill). More importantly, I didn't see a "supposed" police officer right in front of me in the road, directing traffic. As I drove through, I caught the shadow of someone smack my car with a flashlight. I stopped because I was pissed off, and then was given a ticket by an even more pissed off cop. What he said happened was that he dove out of my way and through the flashlight in the air and it happened to land on my car. Blah blah blah, I got a ticket for reckless driving. Fortunately, we knew the officer, so my parents took me to talk with him and we dropped the whole thing down to a smal fine and no points.

Now, let's move ahead to Labor Day weekend 1999. It was the end of my first week of college. I hated it. I was racing home to see my girlfriend of the time. Of course, it was raining and traffic was heavy. So, being the mature driver that I was, I made a pretty tight lane change to avoid getting boxed in at once point. What I didn't know was that this particular weekend, polive were targeting aggressive drivers. So I was pulled over right away and given a ticket. On my court day, though, I just went to talk to the officer and he dropped it down to a small fine and no points. Easy.

*return to present music*

So that's really it. I don't get pulled over. I've never had extra points on my license. Does this make me some phenominal driver? Is it really that hard to stay in the vicinity of the speed limit? I don't know. You tell me. Maybe I'm just lucky and this will come back to bite me in the ass when I drive into Philly tomorrow.

On a side note, I tried cramming a 2nd CD into my head unit. It just made an angry noise and wouldn't accept it. So I guess that's my answer. Quite a let down. Thanks a lot, Matt. If I hadn't taken your advice then I would still have dreams of a CD-changer in my car. Now I know the bitter bitter truth...and it tastes bitter...