Pink hair, driving in Detroit and opera: Some observations

Well, yesterday turned out to be fodder for a number of observations. My mom happens to like opera, I don't mind it, my dad hates it. So, when my mom decided that she wanted to go to the Detroit Opera House to see "Norma" she asked me if I wanted to go. I agreed and she got tickets for last night. Let me tell you, getting there, I thought I'd die.

Now, when I was 16 my mom was dead set against me getting a driver's license and I was so pissed about the whole thing. At this point I've been driving for 10 years and the more I'm with my mom when she's driving, the more I realize that she's a maniac on the road. Everything was ok until we got on 96 and there was a detour that took us off the highway, into a less-than-stellar area of Detroit where there was MORE construction. Things came to a grinding halt and this is where the problem begins. My mom is so busy looking at everything but what is in front of her that we almost hit the car in front of us multiple times. I had a death-grip on the door handle and honestly believed we wouldn't make it to the theater without getting in an accident. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, she is getting frustrated because of the whole detour/construction issue and just about blows through an intersection with the light against us, at about 40 to 50 mph. If I hadn't yelled at her to stop, we'd have gone right through. That's the other thing that makes me horribly nervous driving with her, it never seems like she's going to stop as she's coming to a light, stop sign or behind another car. I hate driving with her, I usually feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I mean, there's aggressive driving and then there's idiotic driving. It's like she thinks that she's driving like a New Yorker (to be fair, she did learn to drive there) but this is just stupid. I mean, not stopping for a red light isn't New York, it's asinine. Sheesh.

So, we actually made it to the opera, the whole thing was ok, quite nice and all, but as we're standing around during intermission I see the weirdest woman there. She has a bubble-gum pink bobbed wig on, black platform shoes, and a blue, strapless, PVC dress. She looked like she was poured into the dress (or it was spray-painted on) and, she definitely didn't have the body to be wearing such a dress. Her breasts must have been kept in the dress by sheer willpower, because there wasn't much else keeping them in there. I'm not sure what the weirdest bit of the whole thing was...the pink wig? I mean, pink hair I could understand more in a way. You dye your hair, you're stuck with that color no matter where you go till you decide to dye over it. But a pink wig? She CHOSE to put that on to go to the opera. Bizarre. The dress made her look like a cheap hooker and the guy she was with was completely normal. Your average black/navy suited/tie-wearing middle aged guy. How the two of them ended up together I have no idea unless it's some sort of weird Pretty Woman scenario they're trying to live out. She must have a hell of a healthy self-esteem to be ok going out in that get up, especially to the opera where the standard uniform is any color as long as it's black and I'd say the average age is 40ish (so, likely to be horrified at a pink wig, PVC dress wearing, hooker inspired wardrobe).

It was kind of a bizarre evening in a lot of ways. At least I made it out alive!! It's cold and gross out, perfect day for curling up with a book which is exactly what I think I'll do:)
Ciao,
Sasha