“Seriously!?” she said.

Yesterday was a run errands kind of day. One of those errands included picking up a little more fall decor. (I like to add a little bit each year.) I opted to go to Target since its, well, okay, one of my most favorite stores.

It was early afternoon, so it wasn’t very busy. I got better than normal parking, and I headed towards the store. I could hear a car coming up behind me down the aisle I was parked, and I figured they’d pass on by and head their way. They… didn’t. Made me a little uncomfortable how they stuck behind me the whole way, but I kept my stride and kept walking. I really wanted them to just move on, so I took a little zig-zag over to cross the “roadway” in the actual crosswalk in front of the store. That’s when I heard it:

“SERIOUSLY!?” a woman shouted. And as I got across the road just sped off behind me, clearly upset I’d taken an extra four or five steps to cross in the crosswalk.

I am the least confrontational person you’ll meet. Unless I am in a position of leadership. Then I have NO PROBLEM chewing you out for not pulling your weight or for being out of line in any way. I take leadership positions seriously. But in day-to-day life? Eh. I do my road rage ranting behind closed windows. I rant in my journal or to my husband or my mom. (Or both if I am really ticked off.) But past that? Nope. I had confrontations.

But boy can I stew on something that bothers me! For hours. Days. Heck, I am still stewing over stuff that happened in elementary school! I can stew, man.

So needless to say, my entire time in Target, I stewed over this woman. Doing that “wish I’d haves” and the “what the hells?”

At first, I wished I’d stopped and spun around and shouted back a well timed, “REALLY!?” at her. I mean, she had ample time to go around me. So in that respect, her “problem” truly was her own.

Then I wished I’d have slowed my pace dramatically. I’m 6′ tall. I can walk slow, but even then my stride is the equivalent of about two strides to anyone else. I wished I’d have shortened my stride just to mess with her. But, really, I was glad I kept my head high and pretended I didn’t hear her.

Ultimately, I decided that if my four or five extra steps really caused her that much stress, she has bigger issues that I could ever consider. If she was running late, she might as well give it up now. My walking added all of five seconds to her wait. And if she really felt the need to be confrontational on this issue? Then who knows how she’d be in a major confrontation, and I wanted NO part of that.

So I let it go and went about my day. I was in a good mood, and I wasn’t going to let her get me down.

Seriously.

One thought on ““Seriously!?” she said.”

  1. Wow. I think I’d have at least sent her a “What the heck?!” kind of look. Oh well. You went on into Target. Hard not to be happy at that. :)

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