Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Monday, Dec. 11, 2006 - 3:22 p.m.

This is a little entry I like to call "Welcome Back to Los Angeles."

I was driving my car this week, minding my own business, waiting to make a left turn at an intersection. LA has no turn signals, so you have to wait until the light turns red in most cases, then make your turn. Almost no one in the stream of oncoming traffic yields to you on the yellow, so there's no way to make a truly legal left turn in this city. Which makes for some dodgy bullshit in the legal system, and was, in fact, what the case was about that I got called to jury duty for. (yes, I know, preposition at the end of a sentence. blah blah blah.) So I have a nice wide space on the yellow to make my turn, and it looks like the lady in the car closest to me is going to stop, and the guy back behind her is definitely slowing down to a stop, so I start to make my left on the yellow. But the lady apparently decides no, she is going to make the light, and she doesn't stop. She slows, but she doesn't stop. I realize she's not stopping, despite the light already being yellow, so *I* stop. The guy is also stopping. So she enters the intersection, the light turns red, she passes me, and I start to make my turn, all normal, typical, LA-driving.

When suddenly the asswipe who is still 6' back behind the limit line and decellerating (why does accelerate have one L but decellerate has 2???) suddenly ACcelerates, ignores the light which has already been red for at least 2 or 3 seconds, flies into the intersection, and - maintaining full eye contact with me the entire way - drives right the fuck into my car, no swerving, no trying to avoid the accident, nothing. Just slams right the fuck into me, and looks at me like "what the fuck are you gonna do about it, bitch?" Then he slowly backs away, and I think well, this is a lawsuit, and he drove into me to sue me, so I pull my car across the intersection up to the curb, and while I am doing that, the little fucker speeds away. And of course I didn't get his license plate number, because I was all shocked that he actually fucking drove his ass into me on purpose, like we were playing at bumpercars at the amusement park. Plus, my knee hurt, because I whacked it on something when he drove his ass into me. (I have a bruise there and it's swollen, and later that day I had to ice it because it hurt quite a freaking bit, frankly. So did my left elbow, which also still hurts some.) So yet again, I have to call the police and my insurance company to file a fucking hit and run accident, which makes a total of at least 4 hit and runs since moving to California, when I had NEVER had a single one in all the years I lived in Texas. I average one hit and run accident every 3 fucking years here. And that's just counting the ones I can remember for sure. I think there were 2 others, but I can't remember for sure whether or not they were hit and runs. If they were, that would make it one every other fucking year.

So my lower headlight is broken and shoved back so that it's housing is broken, and I need to get my bumper checked to make sure the padding doesn't need to be replaced, but at least I'm not seriously hurt this time. That part's good. The last time was really painful. This time I just have a throbbing elbow (probably strained the ligament or tendon when it got wrenched in the impact) and a bruised and swollen knee.

I fucking HATE LA.

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008