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So at the end of the fun-filled day, we headed back up to Phoenix at Mckenna's bedtime, so she would just sleep in the car on the way home. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from the hospital to my parents, and little miss thang doesn't do well on long (and short) car rides if she's awake.
Well around 9pm I hit the last stop sign before my parents' neighborhood (about a quarter mile from their house). As the only car in the intersection, I tapped my breaks to slow down, and made my right turn, without coming to a full and complete stop. I barely had time to hit my accelerator to speed back up before I saw cop lights turn on behind me. "Awesome." I thought. Was I concerned about a ticket? A little. Was I concerned about this idiot waking Mckenna up in the process of pulling me over for a rolling stop at an empty intersection at 9PM at night? BIG TIME. I pulled over the first chance I had, which was at the entrance of my parents' neighborhood. I rolled down my window and began to fumble around for my license and registration.
Then, as I scoured for my most current insurance card, I heard, "Hi, Ma'am."
"Hi," I whispered back with my head WAYYYY out the window as to try to not wake Mckenna in the backseat.
"Do you have a little one in the back?" He said as he looked into the back window.
"Yeah, sorry, trying to keep her asleep."
"I pulled you over because you didn't come to a full and complete stop back at the stop sign."
"Ok," I said, with no excuse other than it's a waste of time to stop, when there are no other cars stopped at the intersection...and I figured he didn't want that excuse.
"This your house?" He asked.
"No it's my parents'. I'm staying with them."
"Where are you coming from?"
Oh boy, I thought. I wanted to lay on the sympathy card big time, but decided it would be more effective if I held off...yeah, I'm a bad person, I know. And I decided I'd only tell him if he decided to get nosy and ask lots of questions. "I'm coming from Tucson."
"Tucson? What were you doing in Tucson?"
Jackpot! "I was down there for the day visiting my husband in the hospital." I had a feeling at that point he wouldn't give me a ticket.
"What's he in the hospital for?" He asked, as if to see if I was lying.
"He has Cystic Fibrosis. So he's been in for a couple weeks getting treatments."
"Oh," he said with a little gulp. "I'll be right back." He said before walking away to run my license.
...I sat, nervous. I hate being pulled over. I hate being pulled over for something so dumb it makes me want to punch the cop in the face.
"Are you tired?" I heard and looked up. It was kind of a strange question. I wasn't sure where he was going.
"Umm, yeah. It makes for a long couple of weeks," I said out loud...I wasn't sure if that was the "right" answer, but I gave it anyways.
"You probably just want to get home, get your baby in bed...take a shower...and maybe relax a little bit."
...That's strange, I thought....but I also knew he was sympathizing with me and that I'd likely get off with a warning. "Yeah," I said.
"Ok, well I'm just going to give you a warning, but you need to come to a full stop at that intersection. It's so dark at that intersection, if someone were there without lights on, you wouldn't see them."
I had a couple smart responses I wanted to reply with. I wanted to ask the likelihood of in a pitch black area someone not realizing their lights were off. And if they were off, the likelihood that their tail lights being out too. BUUUT I kept my mouth shut and just replied, "you're right."
We said our goodbyes and I headed on my way...without a ticket.
