Spitting, Spit, Spat... Wednesday, January 12

I can't remember the last time I got into a spat with Snickers that couldn't be brought to hugs and kisses with a simple smile that'd crack our mad frowns.

Our last spat was last August. Today we had a spat.

Our spat was triggered when walking to the bank. Snickers had just bought a bag of chips when all of a sudden we turned the corner and I slipped. Instantly I reached out to grab his arm but this caused his chips to go flying every where. He broke out into a huge laughter while I, on the other hand, was about to cry from badly twisting my ankle on the slippery corner. I won't get into the very details of the spat but it was from an obvious misunderstanding. He thought I was joking so I ended up getting really frustrated. Next thing I knew it he was walking away from me, leaving me standing outside the bank. I stood there for some time waiting for him to come back but while waiting for him I ended up getting annoyed by some random older Korean man who thought he'd stare me down.

Next thing I knew it I was then getting on a bus. I figured the bus would just do a circle around the circle and bring me back, no problem.... problem. I ended up getting on a bus that ventures out of the city and doesn't loop around. Instead, it's route finishes out in the middle of no man's land where the bus driver then makes you get off the bus and pay more money. I wasn't expecting this and because I had given him all the change I had, I had no change left for a return bus. And with no stores around to break my bills and no taxis in sight, I had no choice but to sit and wait. Sure I could have called Snickers; he would have picked me up. But I'm as stubborn as they make us Polish people and he's just as stubborn. We tend to wait it out, hoping that the other guy will crack.

Turns out sitting out in the cold for about an hour will score the pity of random old Korean women. She offered me bus money and back on the bus I went.

Little did I know that back in Cheonan Snickers was having his own little bus problem; his was with a specific bus driver though. He was heading downtown when all of a sudden a bus driver forced his car off the road and up on to an overly busy downtown corner curb where numerous of people were standing waiting for the light to turn. Snickers doesn't take lightly to road hogs and though he himself doesn't have road rage, it's kind of a Korean thing to give other drivers the "death stare stare-down", as I call it, or to pull up to the other driver and yell at them. On a couple of occassions Snickers has in fact got out of his car to comfront the drivers but I find this rather silly and pointless. They have their expected stare-down, followed by each other blaming the other and then they both get back into their own cars. Nothing really gets solved, no one says sorry, and if anything it only causes a bigger problem because now it's interfered with regular traffic and numerous other drivers have slowed down to watch.

Today, when that bus driver literally ran him off the road, Snickers took it upon himself to comfront the driver. He jumped out of his car so that he could talk to the driver. He was only hoping to talk to the bus driver but it was the driver's harsh words that spirred on what happened next. Snickers ended up reaching into the driver's small window, grabbing the driver's shirt collar and pulling him against the window. Things continued to escade though with both them not backing down. The driver continued to yell and Snickers punched the window.

The whole ordeal ended when Snickers went to enter the bus. The bus driver then drove away, leaving a very frustrated Snickers at the corner.

"Good job" I sarcastically said to him when he later told me about it. Because of Snickers' past, he's no stranger to the police and because of holding a professional boxing license he's got to be all that more careful. I gave him quite the lecture about it too and in talking about this little bus spat we forgot all about our own couple spat.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's up with Koreans giving the "death stare stare-down" to other drivers?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
-- William G. McAdoo