Passivity

I've heard a lot about the passivity of Seattle residents, both from friends of mine who live here currently, and those who have lived here in the past. One of my friends says that when she's open and direct with people, they assume that she's from New York. Those don't seem to be Seattle qualities, for some reason.

So imagine my surprise tonight when I witnessed a very "in your face" example of non-passivity. I was driving with some friends, heading downtown. We were passing through the Pacific Place area (Pike/Pine), and I was in the rightmost lane on a one-way street. As I approached the next intersection, there were no cars waiting at the light in my lane, and it had just turned green. So when I saw a pedestrian walking across the street, left to right, who had just passed the second lane (of three), placing him squarely in my path on a green light, I honked. It was a quick two-pulse beeping, to alert him to my presence. I'm OK with jaywalkers in general, but I just wanted him to know that he was crossing against the lights. It wasn't a long hold-down-the-horn blast, just a "Hey, be careful, or be roadkill!!" kind of thing. And as I passed by the ped as he cleared the intersection, he slapped my car!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? I very nearly stopped on the far side just to get out and scream at him. I spent the next 10 minutes doing breathing exercises trying to stop being angry. I was so livid! But I resolved to just come home and blog about it, and then put it behind me. Passive, my ass.