May Monkey

Did I say monkey? I meant meme. Anyway, Mr. Blork posted the May monkey a little late this month. But here it is:

When we are not ourselves. Describe a time you were out of charachter.

This is tough, as it gets into the whole realm of perception and reality. I have no idea when I am in or out of charachter. Also, like most people, I swing from introvert to extrovert, from leader to follower, from opinionated flaming liberal to fiscal conservative depending on the contexts.

But my own actions did surprise me about a month ago. I had this head-on bike collision. I won't go into the details of the wreck other than that it was very violent yet no one was injured. Oh and the most important detail: I place at least 75% of the blame on the 20 year-old kid who ran into me (and I'm being generous, taking a quarter of the blame).

The unusual part is how I confronted this guy. My first instinct wasn't to see if either he, I, or our bikes were hurt. It was to yell at him. I not so gently inquired as to what the fuck was wrong with him and was curious as to what the hell he was doing biking so fast and swerving the wrong way.

Then I cooled off in like five seconds and apologized for yelling. A scary part was during maybe three of these five seconds, I had it in my head I was going to fight this guy.


But that wuld have never happened. He was super-friendly about the whole affair and we biked off our separate ways. My bike and I did need a few minor repairs but we are no worse for the wear at this point.

My shouting and swearing was so weird and out of charachter, moslty becuase it was directed at a stranger. I so dislike conflict. And when I do decide to confront someone it is usually someone I know very well and spend weeks to months deliberating how best to bring it up.

This isn't to say I don't stick up for myself or I've never lost my temper before. Who hasn't? But I usually reserve these instances for family members. Who doesn't? But I've never acted so quickly and inappropriately, to a complete stranger.

It was so weird. I hope this doesn't mean I'm turning into an ornery SOB.

Click here for more May memes. Did I say meme? I meant monkeys.