On the whole NY/Boston thing, I've never been able to figure out why in NY I never seem to have to do the whole bob&weave thing to get past my fellow pedestrians that drives to absolute bugfuck distraction here in Boston. The coming head-on dance thing is bad enough, but the worst is that when you're approaching people from behind to pass them in Boston, they seem to sense it and veer INTO your path. Has everyone just absorbed the way the drivers here cut everyone off into how they walk?

I've never been in NY long enough to figure it out why this doesn't happen there, but it is crazy making.

3. Everyone gets inexplicably yelled at by cabdrivers, homeless people, and Duane Reade employees, so don't let that bother you.

And yet, still better drivers than in California. By far.

That may be, but we generally are good about pedestrians.

Or collect right in front of the entrance to the subway.

Southern Californians do this at elevators. Like, nose to the door. And then are shocked and amazed when they're mowed down by people exiting the elevator. Makes me nuts.

Let people that are inside get out, THEN enter the elevator. Sheesh.

I think I figured out why I am so damn crabby today. I am in more than normal pain, stupid shoulders. I just had a sharp ping when I turned around and was like "OH, right, those hurt, quite a lot, maybe that is why I want to picka fight with everyone." Dear fibro, fuck off.

People have always been helpful to me in New York. More than once, I've had a New Yorker go out of his way to get me headed in the right direction, muttering about tourists all the way. I fear that in the South, people can be more polite but less helpful.

I put Boston as the scariest place to drive for non-natives. People will pass you on the right in your same lane. Drivers sit at lights with one foot on the break and one foot on the accelerator.

Atlanta drivers most noted bad trait is the complete inability to merge. Going to the end of an on ramp and then stopping Does Not Work.

Let people that are inside get out, THEN enter the elevator.

I put Boston as the scariest place to drive for non-natives.

Let people that are inside get out, THEN enter

Doesn't this make sense as a general rule, no matter where you are? I mean, really.

3. Everyone gets inexplicably yelled at by cabdrivers, homeless people, and Duane Reade employees, so don't let that bother you.

True fact.

1. Be aware of your surroundings.

2. Don't impede other people.

These two do sometimes shove me over the edge. I don't mind you being lost and frustrated. I don't mind you chatting me up on the train, or even stumbling around because you don't have the sense to hold onto the pole right in front of you on the train.

But the mindless cell-phone chatting at volume, and standing directly in front of the Metro car door opening as if you don't even see that there are forty people trying to get off and the law of physics demands that you make way (even if basic survival is not motivation enough).

These things? bug.

1. Be aware of your surroundings.

2. Don't impede other people.

But I did follow those two rules (mostly because, in fact, I am lazy; I want to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible and with minimum effort, and nothing enrages me more than people who Impede The Flow--Hec and I are as one on this), and I still got yelled at. Mostly at crowded food service counters, where a multitasking cook or barista handed me the wrong thing and then screamed at me in front of everyone for not having corrected them while they were in the middle of making it.

Which made me want to say, Dude, you were making six things at once, at least two of which looked kind of like what I ordered! How was I to know? And wouldn't you have yelled at me just as much if I'd interrupted you in mid-making? You're making me want to take my money and go away, asshole!

But, instead, I just cried, which was no doubt a gross tactical error.

eta: Everyone gets inexplicably yelled at by cabdrivers, homeless people, and Duane Reade employees, so don't let that bother you.

See? I'm a freak. The only person in NYC who didn't inexplicably yell at me was homeless and visibly crazy.