sweet justice

"Fear will keep the local systems in line." from "Star Wars IV: A New Hope"

Fear of getting a ticket has kept me in line ever since I got my first and only speeding ticket. It was about a month after I got my license, and the fine + traffic school cost me $210--quite a sum for a high school senior without a job. Special thanks go out to my attorney father for agreeing with the judge rather than helping me get off with a lighter sentence. Ain't nothing like a lesson well learned, is there?

Ever since then, I've driven with the cruise control on whenever it's safe. I set it at 5 mph over the speed limit, and I go on my merry way. Last night, I was driving home from school and had the cruise control set at 60--pretty slow, but that was the speed limit + 5 mph, as usual. It was 9:30pm, and it was dark. I was driving through Eden Prairie when a car blew by me going 80-90 mph. Lately, it seems like whenever I see someone speeding, it's a beat-up sedan that looks like it could fall apart at any moment, or a big truck. In this case, it was a beat-up little sedan, probably driven by a teenager. Less than a minute later, I saw the lights of a police car several hundred yards ahead of me. When I got close enough to the police car to see what was going on, there was that beat-up sedan in front of it--pulled over for speeding.

I laughed, and drove off into the night. Sometimes it's wrong to laugh at others' misfortunes...and sometimes, it feels really good.