That moment I became the embarrassing NJ jerk while on vacation

Whelp, I've officially joined the group of jerks while out of state. Although to be fair, my incident was unintentional, and I was aware of it when it happened.

Those here in New Jersey know what it's like to deal with oblivious jerks all the time during the summer season (or maybe I should say, all year long). At the shore, you've got the people who are just plain rude with attitude on the boardwalks.

Year-round, we've got the clueless left-lane drivers who don't seem to understand the concept of a passing lane. And, you know they're oblivious since we have signs all over telling you to keep right except to pass.

But you get the point. It's one thing to be a jerk accidentally, and another to be completely unaware of your actions while on vacation or weekend escape. At least for me, I was aware of it and tried to rectify it right away.

Now before I dive into what happened to me, there's one more type of jerk I want to bring up since it relates to my incident. It's the type of person who's obsessed with having their car alarms set all the time.

You know the type. You're on vacation in a quiet region enjoying the peace and quiet, when all of a sudden, this obnoxious car alarm starts to go off. And when you're in a quiet place, the sound of those alarms seems to amplify.

Sometimes the alarm continues for a while, completely ruining the peace and quiet that existed before the car horns and sirens started going off uncontrollably. Some people just don't get it and will never change.

And then there are those unintentional situations where you become that person without meaning to do it. Unfortunately, I now fall into this category.

It was a beautiful morning on the last day of our vacation. We stayed in a beach cottage toward the tip of Cape Cod and I got up extra early to start packing the car since we were leaving later that morning to head back to New Jersey.

So I put a few bags in my car while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. Once it was ready, I stopped to pour a cup and sit outside for a while to enjoy one last sunrise.

It was around 6 a.m. when I sat down to enjoy my coffee, a time when many others in our cottage community were still fast asleep. The morning was very quiet with just a light breeze.

Normally, I leave my car keys inside when I don't need them, but being I was recently putting bags in the car, I put the keys in my front pants pocket. The car key is one of those with built-in buttons on it, as opposed to a separate clicker.

So I'm sitting for a while enjoying the peace and quiet, when all of a sudden, a car alarm starts to go off. And this alarm was extremely loud and disturbing. Even worse, the air temperatures were cool enough to where most had their windows open making the alarm sound even louder inside.

It didn't take me long to realize it was my car. Apparently what happened is while the key was in my pocket, I somehow applied enough pressure on the panic button while sitting.

Making this situation worse was the fact the keys got stuck in my pocket while trying to take them out to turn this alarm off. The end of the keyring caught something inside my pocket preventing me from getting them out quickly.

Eventually, I got the keys out and turned the panic button off. But unfortunately, the alarm was going off for around 20 seconds, enough to wake others from their sound sleep.

It was completely unintentional, but it made me feel like a jerk that I have just become that person whose car alarm will go off for no reason, ruining others peace and quiet while trying to enjoy their vacation.

And it didn't help that it was so early in the morning either. It was embarrassing, to say the least, and I know others didn't want to hear that obnoxious sound while on their vacations.

So yes, I have become one of those jerks who ruins a peaceful vacation with their car alarm. The car with Jersey plates, no less. At least it was unintentional and I was not oblivious to it.