I am Speed

Yesterday I got the paperwork to attend traffic school. It occured to me that somehow, I forgot to mention that I had gotten a speeding ticket about a month and half ago. I was driving Jake to school on a long stretch of open highway right through a well known speed trap and zoned out chitchatting with my brother on the phone. I saw the cop out of the corner of my eye and tried to slow down, but it was too late. Busted. So he pulls me over, asks me why I was speeding to which I try to answer honestly that I was just not paying close enough attention and was very sorry. Not good enough. He takes my paperwork and goes back to his car to write me up. Darn! In the meantime, Jake is asking all sorts of questions as to why we are stopped, what the police car is doing, if he is going to be late for school etc. etc. Agree with it or not, Jake has occasionally watched Joe play a video game where the object of the game is to run away from the cops. It is fairly benign other than that. He just likes watching the racing and crashing but Jake started telling me to run away from the cop so I had to explain to him that I should not have been driving so fast and now I was in trouble, kind of like time out. I was winging it the best I could.

So the cop comes back to give me the ticket and seriously you are not going to believe this but Jake tells him, "Mommy was not going too fast!". You know one would think it was at least a little cute, maybe funny enough to crack a smile, maybe even let me off with a warning. But no. I have to get the cop without a sense of humor. Maybe he does not like kids. Anyway, there was just a brief glance in Jake's direction and that was it. "Here is your ticket mam. Drive safely".

So we get on our way and I tell Jake, " I am speed" trying to lighten the mood because honestly he was a little upset that he was going to be late for school. To this he replied, "No mom, Lightning McQueen is Speed". Of course he is right. That is the catch phrase of the main character from the movie "Cars". The movie that started his whole obsession with race cars to begin with. And for now, I think mommy will be anything BUT speed. I had better slow down.