Ah yes... Driving back from work.

I totally forgot, but on Saturday, driving south on Harlem, on my way home from work, I was confronted with the grim realization that there is no shield around me that makes me "unkillable." I have always known that I will, eventually, die one day. I still believe my death will either be of natural causes or by design... My OWN design. However, Saturday night gave me a glimpse of how terribly vulnerable we all are, especially behind the wheel.

As I turned on my left turn signal, going about 35 - 37 mph, to enter the left lane, I checked my mirrors and since it was dark, my blindspot as well (my mirrors are untrustworthy once they have gone unwashed for a week or two). It was all clear. I began to ease into the left lane, when for some reason, I checked again... This would prove to be a life saver...

From behind a conversion van about 40 - 50 feet behind my sturdy '91 Toyota Camry, comes this black Volkswagen going about 75 - 80 mph barreling into my new lane and nearly rams me from behind. Luckily, I swerved back into the right lane as the car zoomed by in an instant.

Literally, about a second later, another black car swerved around the van behind me at an even faster speed as it tried to catch up with the VW. Just as it passed me by (going 80 - 85 mph, remember), it nearly rearends the VW and tries to swerve around it into the right lane. Now, I guess they were trying to race, because the VW would have no part of it, and tried to cut it off by swerving into that lane. The other car swerved again and spun out...

Smoke and burning rubber (along with the stench of it) filled the air as I cautiously slowed and eventually passed the other black car who had stopped and blocked off a side-street. Seconds later, in the right lane, coming to a stop at a red light at the Harlem & Howard intersection, on my right, low and behold was the little VW. At the helm, a young boy no older than 17 and as his cargo, four other young eventual high school drop-outs. I rolled down my window to explain to them the type of pain the driver of the VW would be in if had, in fact, hit me. Before I could speak, this moronic, little, perky (and I mean "perky" in the most hateful and demeaning way) blonde sticks her head out the window and confidently, with a smirk and a laugh, asks:

"What's up, man?"

She turned to her friend at the helm and he hit the gas and sped off in the middle of the red light only to stop at the next intersection (Harlem & Milwaukee) about 100 feet ahead, where they proceeded to head southeast on Milwaukee. Later, on Harlem, the other car had caught up to me and cut me off once again, where he proceeded to stop and block traffic as he tried to make a U-turn from the right lane to try and go back north on Harlem...

What a trip.

Once I got my senses back and told the story to my dad, I realized they were two dumb kids who saw each other through their respective windows and decided to have some sort of race down a residential street at ungodly speeds, endangering themselves and everyone around them.

Perhaps this whole ordeal has not taught me that I am vulnerable, but rather supports my original idea that I've had all my life, that I am physically invincible. If I had not felt it necessary to check that "un-necessary" once more, I would probably be very, very injured. I mean very.