Fast & the Furriest — I’m a Midlife Speed Demon Now
Ever have one of those days where you wake up determined to conquer adulthood, only to find yourself, by 9am, parked on the side of the road with flashing lights in your rearview mirror?
Welcome to “Midlife Shenanigans with Tish”! In this episode, I share how my well-intentioned morning took a detour thanks to brain fog, questionable luck, and my speed-hungry dog, Gary—yes, Gary, Gary Lazereyes to be exact—himself.
From unexpectedly earning a $119 speeding ticket (and nervously giggling my way through it) to finding a little comfort in a spontaneous trip to the beach, I share the frustrations and hilarities of navigating midlife mishaps.
If you’ve ever found yourself on the wrong end of a speeding ticket—or just need a good laugh —you won’t want to miss this one. Snacks required, sanity optional, snorts encouraged!
Transcript
You ever have one of those mornings where you wake up,
Speaker:your feet hit the ground and you're thinking, yeah,
Speaker:today's going to be a great day. I'm going to adult.
Speaker:I am going to, you know, just have my shit together. It's just
Speaker:going to be a great day. Yeah, about that.
Speaker:By 9am now, don't quote me on the time exactly.
Speaker:I guess I could probably look and find out. But anyways, by
Speaker:9am I'm sitting on the side of the road with flashing lights
Speaker:in my rear view mirror, nervously giggling while a cop
Speaker:handed me a speeding ticket. Yep,
Speaker:apparently I'm a midlife speed demon now. Welcome to
Speaker:midlife shenanigans. Snacks required,
Speaker:sanity optional, snorts encouraged. I'm
Speaker:Tish. And today's episode is brought to you by
Speaker:my lovely perimenopause brain fog.
Speaker:Questionable decision making. Although literally, I
Speaker:really was not doing anything questionable. And
Speaker:my dog, and I'm going to say that my dog has a serious
Speaker:need for speed. So this is his fault. Okay, so
Speaker:let me lay it out for you. This is how it went down.
Speaker:I'm driving along and I see a cop on the side of the road
Speaker:now, now where I live. And I actually think this is wherever you live.
Speaker:If there is, you know, another lane, you're supposed to move over
Speaker:into that, like that left lane to,
Speaker:so you're not right next to the cop that is pulled off on the
Speaker:side of the road. But there's a car coming up, so I can't
Speaker:pull into that left lane. So I start to slow down
Speaker:and the cop is on a motorcycle. So he
Speaker:had had somebody else pulled over. I'm guessing
Speaker:that's why he was like sitting on the side of the road. I don't, I
Speaker:guess honestly I don't know what he was doing on the side of the road.
Speaker:So anyways, because I couldn't get into that left lane, you know,
Speaker:he's standing there and he's looking down at something like
Speaker:on his bike. And he looks up and I'm at this point, I'm
Speaker:moving slow enough because I couldn't get into that left lane. So I slowed way
Speaker:down and he points at me, he
Speaker:turns his freaking flashing lights on and I'm like,
Speaker:what the fuck? What? Like what am I doing?
Speaker:And I thought maybe I was going to get into trouble because I didn't get
Speaker:pulled over into that left lane. And you know,
Speaker:I was basically right next to him as he's on the side of
Speaker:the road. But anyways, I'm coming up
Speaker:onto like the right turn spot where I needed to be.
Speaker:So I pulled off just shy of where that, that
Speaker:right turn road is. And here he comes flying up on his bike
Speaker:with those bright ass lights flashing in my rearview
Speaker:mirrors. My dog's in the back seat, he's barking, tail wagging,
Speaker:and I'm just like, oh, my God. I, at this point, I seriously
Speaker:am questioning, like, what did I do? And
Speaker:the thought that I had been speeding didn't even cross my mind because
Speaker:I am so anal about driving
Speaker:the speed limit or just barely above the speed
Speaker:limit. Like, I seriously obsessively check my
Speaker:speedometer or I have the cruise control
Speaker:set. So speeding did not cross my mind.
Speaker:Anyways, he walks up to the car and he says,
Speaker:do you know how fast you were going? And it dawns on
Speaker:me that I had been in like, my own
Speaker:little world for quite a while, that
Speaker:I had no idea how fast I
Speaker:really had been going. And I said,
Speaker:no, I'm sorry, officer, I haven't looked at my speedometer.
Speaker:Oh, God, what a dumbass thing to say to a cop, right?
Speaker:And he just kind of looks at me and he's like, may I have your
Speaker:driver's license, ma', am, and your registration? And I'm like, yes, of
Speaker:course. And meanwhile, you know, my dog is like, kind
Speaker:of like sniffing and not really growling, but doing
Speaker:kind of a little like under his breath type
Speaker:bark. And I'm just thinking, oh, it's Gary. Yes, my dog's name is Gary. Gary,
Speaker:now is not the time to be freaking out because, you know, this poor
Speaker:officer is just doing his job. So anyways, he goes back to his
Speaker:motorcycle. He's gone for a few minutes. I'm sitting there and I'm just
Speaker:like, I'm chewing on my nails. My stomach is getting like those
Speaker:bubble guts. And I'm just nervous. I'm nerved up.
Speaker:And he finally comes back to the car and he's like.
Speaker:So anyways, and I think he told me when he had
Speaker:asked me how fast I was going and I told him, I think he had
Speaker:told me at that point that he had clocked me at 15 miles
Speaker:over the speed limit. Again, I was
Speaker:so in my own little world that I
Speaker:did not. I don't remember
Speaker:the last time I had even looked at my speedometer, which again,
Speaker:that is so freaking unnormal for me. So
Speaker:I'm just saying that it was literally because I was just
Speaker:having one of those perimenopause brain fog moments.
Speaker:That's my story. And I'm Sticking to it. So anyways, he says,
Speaker:well, I wrote it for you doing six miles over.
Speaker:Or maybe he said five miles over, but if you look at the actual ticket,
Speaker:it says six miles over. So basically he's
Speaker:telling me that he, quote unquote has done me a favor
Speaker:by dropping it down to he clocked me at, you know,
Speaker:five, six miles over instead of 15. So it was a
Speaker:50 mile per hour zone and apparently he clocked me at
Speaker:65. Again, I can't even, I can't even
Speaker:question that because I honestly don't know.
Speaker:I had not looked at my speedometer and again, like this is
Speaker:just what does not make sense to me. I am literally
Speaker:so obsessive about how fast I am
Speaker:driving or having that cruise control set that I
Speaker:don't know what, I don't know what the hell was going on that I
Speaker:didn't, you know, I didn't know how fast I was going.
Speaker:But. So anyways, he hands me this ticket and again
Speaker:I am nervous and when I'm
Speaker:nervous I do a couple of different things. I'm awkward
Speaker:as hell. As one, I giggle because I'm
Speaker:nervous and I get awkward. So, so he hands me the ticket and
Speaker:I start to giggle and I'm like, thanks officer. And I
Speaker:start giggling and he just kind of looks at me some more and
Speaker:he chuckled a little bit and he's like, well I
Speaker:can't say that that's the normal reaction I get
Speaker:and I just giggle some more. So you know, he goes back to
Speaker:his motorcycle and I put my license and
Speaker:registration away and
Speaker:continue on. I was going to get a bagel anyways. I
Speaker:get to the bagel place and I have to sit in my car and I
Speaker:just have to like breathe for a few minutes because I didn't know
Speaker:whether to cry, I didn't know whether to laugh. And honestly,
Speaker:the fact that I didn't cry, I'm so impressed with myself
Speaker:because I have always been a very emotional
Speaker:person and cry so easily. But I don't know what the hell
Speaker:midlife has done to me. I literally, I mean,
Speaker:you could tell me like, hello Tisha.
Speaker:And I could just break out in tears. I mean, obviously I'm being,
Speaker:you know, overly dramatic, but I seriously cry
Speaker:super easily now. And I'm again, I'm blaming
Speaker:it on frickin midlife because what else? Midlife is
Speaker:just weird. So anyways, you
Speaker:want to know how much this ticket is costing me?
Speaker:$119.
Speaker:Damn, damn, damn, damn.
Speaker:So let's talk about the real Culprit here, my dog, Gary.
Speaker:Gary Laser Eyes, to be exact. And a little side fun fact
Speaker:here, he is known as Gary Laser Eyes because when we adopted him
Speaker:from the Humane Society, they were calling him Gary Laser Eyes because
Speaker:he has crossed eyes and an underbite. He is the queen
Speaker:quirkiest freaking dog ever. He just fit so,
Speaker:so well with us. But anyways, I'm just saying that this
Speaker:little furball, and he's not little, he's £80, by the way. He's got
Speaker:a serious need for speed. So here he is in the back seat, tongue out,
Speaker:ears flapping, live in his fast and the furriest
Speaker:fantasy while I'm earning a serve a souvenir of
Speaker:$119. Honestly, I think
Speaker:my dog was whispering, you got this, mom. Punch it just
Speaker:a little bit faster. Yeah, I amused myself.
Speaker:But thankfully, there is
Speaker:a silver lining. Although I don't know that it's really a silver lining in
Speaker:the fact that I got a ticket. But my man surprised me
Speaker:with a spontaneous beach trip. If
Speaker:there is one thing that you will quickly learn about me,
Speaker:if you don't already know this about me, is that I am
Speaker:obsessed with water. The ocean specifically.
Speaker:That's not even true. I just love water. I love lakes, I love rivers, I
Speaker:love creeks. But just like the beach is
Speaker:my happy place. And the fact that
Speaker:he sprung this on me after telling him about my ticket
Speaker:just kind of made the day that much better.
Speaker:So anyways, yeah, I get to,
Speaker:oh, pay a lovely 119 ticket.
Speaker:And reminding me to, I don't know, just
Speaker:be present, slow down. I don't know what the hell
Speaker:the, you know, the lesson and all of that was, but
Speaker:there's. There's got to be a lesson. I like to think that there's always a
Speaker:lesson in. In things like this. Oh,
Speaker:yes. So anyways, that's it for today's Midlife
Speaker:Shenanigans. If you've ever gotten a ticket,
Speaker:I want to know. Did you thank the
Speaker:officer for giving you the ticket and
Speaker:giggle nervously or is that just my weird. My
Speaker:weird quirkiness? Thank you for listening to this
Speaker:episode of Midlife Shenanigans. Snacks required.
Speaker:Insanity optional, Snorts encouraged. This
Speaker:wasn't the episode that I had planned to release today, but
Speaker:this was too good to not release. And I love.
Speaker:If I can make somebody laugh by sharing some of the.
Speaker:That I go through, hey, it's all worth it.
Speaker:So, yeah, I'm gonna leave you with that. And I am gonna
Speaker:see what other shenanigans I can get into today. I
Speaker:will chat with you in the next episode.
