Scary drivers and jerk cyclists

So yesterday, I had an event to attend at North Chevy Chase elementary school and the weather was beautiful, so I decided to take the Capital Crescent/Georgetown Branch trails up.  It was a seriously pleasant commute, probably because I left the house around 7 and there weren't a ton of cars on the road.  Even going down the Mass Ave hill wasn't totally terrifying due to lack of traffic.  (I did get on the sidewalk at one point, however, and nearly smacked into a tree that was growing diagonally over the ground).  Lots of super bikers going onto the CCT at that point.  The guy in front of me, in his white and blue spandex, powered up the entrance ramp.  I got off and walked my bike up because I had zero momentum...

The trail was mostly uneventful, until I got to Connecticut Avenue with its 17 lanes of traffic, signs for the Beltway, and no obvious crosswalk in sight. Little did I know, the trail jogs over and continues on the other side (I found it on the way back), but because Google maps led me astray, I turned left up the Connecticut Avenue sidewalk, crossed onto Manor Road, proceeded to get a little lost until a friendly driver noticed me looking confused, then finally found the school on Jones Bridge Road.  Success!

A side note: I did this all without coffee in my system.  Trying to work on the caffeine addiction.

One thing that I appreciate about the office where I intern is that none of my co-workers expressed shock that I was biking.  It annoys me, for some odd reason, when people say things like, "You're planning on BIKING EIGHT MILES?"  Probably because 1) it gets old and 2) it proves that cyclists are still in the minority because apparently, we're hard to come by (it continues to baffle me that I see a bunch of cyclists out on any given commute downtown, yet I never know where they go because I rarely encounter them in everyday life).

Anyway.  On the way back (noontime commutes home are FUN!), I passed a couple of guys who were riding next to each other.  One moved behind the other, so I assume they saw me, but I said, "On your left!"  anyway because that's what you're supposed to do.  The rear guy responded with a snarky, "I was aware."  Thanks, jerk. 

Once in Georgetown, I decided to head to GW to check out the anthropology department (they accepted me!), and in doing so, had to go around the terror that is Washington Circle.  No one really respects anyone's right-of-way there, and a cab driver just looked at me blithely as he started to cut me off.  I stared back with all the loathing I could muster, and clearly he did not care because he cut me off anyway.  As I was turning onto K Street, I stopped at a red light where a pedestrian was about to cross.  He paused and stared at me when he saw me coming, then when I stopped, he said, "Thank you for stopping!"  I responded, "The light's red...?"  And he said, "Oh, but you're the first person on a bicycle I've ever seen who actually stopped there."  So apparently cyclists are jerks at that particular intersection.   Law-abiding pedestrians really shouldn't have to fear getting mowed down by a bike, and it makes me sad when stuff like this happens.   

Because I am extraordinarily directionally challenged, I get confused about who has the right-of-way at un-lit intersections.  When I can't tell if I'm supposed to go or not, I just look purposefully confused and/or lost and/or distracted until it's clearly my turn.  I need to work on that.