Welcome to Crazytown

I think the world is slowly going crazy.

I have no real scientific evidence to support this, just a general gut-feeling.

I deal with a lot of people and personalities in my job, both in the wilds of cyberspace and in real life. In the last few weeks - since, say, the beginning of August - I've noticed people getting just a little bit touchier. It's almost as if they don't have patience anymore. There's a sense of desperation in the things they say and do.

Twice since the beginning of the week have other drivers been malicious towards me. The most vicious, senseless, and alarming: when I pulled into the loading zone in front of Liz's office to wait for her, some cuntrag in an SUV pulls up behind me and starts honking at me - even though my blinkers are on. I wave her around and she keeps on honking. As she drives around, she tells me "nice parking place!" and circles the lot, and then comes back to flip me off.

That, by the way, was the incident that precipitated me wanting to beat her with the umbrella (see yesterday's post).

I am more than willing to grant that this could all be a coincodence. I'm not convinced, though. Fewer Americans support the War in Iraq now more than ever. Driving has become downright inconvenient and expensive - and I'm only filling up a little Mitsubishi that gets a good 27 miles to the gallon most days, not a big old gasguzzler. Hurricane Katrina just wiped one of my favorite cities off the map, and I haven't heard from my two Louisiana friends since this all started.

Maybe it's just a perfect storm of events in my life, but it sure as hell seems like we're getting a little bit loonier these days.