That Awkward Moment

...when you run into the same policeman who pulled you over (the day before) in the parking lot of the grocery store as you are putting groceries in your car.

It's like, oh hey...you look kind of familiar....oh yeah...(Cue walk of shame to my car. Except I was already at my car. Cue opening door of shame as I sat in my car.)

Well, and there was the initial moment of panic as I saw the same exact policeman with his car sitting right behind where I was parked. And even though nothing came to mind, I knew I must have done something or broken some law, in the past 24 hours.

Although...the cop was kind of cute...in a young Andy Griffith/Taylor sort of way (wow, that doesn't sound creepy at all) so it wasn't like seeing him again was this god-awful experience. And he hadn't given me a ticket the previous day. I believe our conversation the day before had gone something like this (cop in italics):


Do you know why I pulled you over?  
Um, no...
Did you see me stopped on the side of the road with another car?
Yes..
Did you notice that there was room on in the other lane for you to move over?
Um...yeah...kind of? I guess now that you mention it, I do rememaer that?
Have you heard of the the "move over" law?
Like, 10 In A Bed? ("...there were 10 in a bed and the little one said, 'roll over, roll over.' So they all rolled over and one fell out.." What, not ringing a bell? Well, someone was deprived as child.) And no, I did not actually say that.

I actually didn't know what the "move over" law was, so he then he proceeded to explain it to me. It's a good law. Makes sense. You should check it out if you don't already know what it is about.

When was the last time you have received a ticket?
Uh, like two years ago? December 2009?
What was it for?
...an overdue tag... (I know, such a stupid thing. Nothing cool like speeding or illegal possession of drugs or alcohol.)
Alright wait here a minute.
...five minutes later...
Well Lauren, I don't usually do this...but since you have almost a perfect driving record, I'm going to cut you some slack.
Oh okay.

Throughout this whole conversation I kept thinking, Geez Lauren how about you stop saying "um" and try to at least sound a little grateful or something? But I was on my way to a funeral and honestly could care less about getting a ticket or not getting a ticket...but I suppose grace is always appreciated.

However, today I wasn't sure what would happen if I did something wrong and the same cop pulled me over two days in a row. Would I be arrested? I sure as heck doubted he would be as forgiving this time around. So, I may or may not have sat in my car pretending to talk on the phone for 5 minutes while waiting for him to leave.

Don't give me that face, you know you pretend to talk on the phone in dire situations as well.