Look at me, I'm IMPORTANT.

Sometimes, I get really friggin' sick and tired of people in this city. There's a culture of self-importance here that comes with the wealth and the politics, and it's pretty clear that some people (not all, mind you, but enough) think they're better than you. Yes, I myself can be a total elitist snot with precious little patience towards particular groups (mostly conservative and religious assholes), but most of my annoyance is directed towards people who perceive themselves as better than everyone because they are more educated or more "important". Because...you know what? They're not. Ultimately, we are all human. Just because you hold this or that position in X or Y organization does not mean that you shit diamonds, and I wish more people would understand this.

While I was on tour the other day, some woman made some passive aggressive remark about how we, as a group of bikers, should get in the street. I hear this all the time, and she was particularly bitchy, so I politely ignored her, said "Excuse me, ma'am," while passing her, and looked back as she proceeded to get her feathers ruffled and haughtily scold every single member of the tour--who were, as they always are, politely moving in a single-file line down the sidewalk. We weren't in anyone's way and legally, we were allowed to be on that goddamn sidewalk.

I felt bad for the kids that she yelled at, but they also ignored her. It gave me a nice dose of self-righteous schadenfreude (good word, and I think it's applicable here?) to see her completely unable to stop us because we were right and she was wrong.

It's these small examples that just build up and irritate the hell out of me--like when I tried to unlock the bathroom door at a cafe downtown (with the key that customers are supposed to retrieve, as indicated by a GIANT SIGN on the door) and someone was in there. I figured that because the key was still there, no one was in the bathroom, and I hadn't seen the dude walk in. I moved to wait by the door when this old guy at a table looks at me and says, rather snottily, "You should knock before going in." Wellll, thank you, sir. Nearly 22 years' worth of common sense has apparently taught me nothing. I guess the fact that the dude in the bathroom being able to voice "Hey, I'm in here!" wasn't going to be enough to deter me from walking in there.

Sometimes I wonder...if I was a man, less blond, older, and wore stuffier clothing (like not jeans and t-shirts), would I be treated differently?