A strange man got mad at me today!!
I stopped at a gas station to check an old lotto ticket that I found in my car. I decided to buy tickets for tonight, but I wanted to let my oldest help pick the numbers (he is always asking me to play the lotto~and I usually feel like I don't have time to stop for tickets), so I thought I'd bring the scan-tron to the car to mark the numbers. Well, when I stopped, my 4-year old, Pilot, unbuckled himself and came up to the front of the van. At this time the van was still running, because I was going to leave the boys in the car while I went in. Pilot wanted to come inside with me, but I told him to wait--that he could go inside with me when I bought the tickets.
I went inside, tried to find the right scan-tron for the day of the week, had to ask to find the right one, then as I walked out the door, there was this strange man coming towards me. He looked at my lotto paper and pointed to my van (I had parked right in front of the doors) and asked, "Is this your car?"
I was immediately confused! Already wondering what was going on. I said, "Yes." He pointed to Pilot, who was sitting in the driver's seat and "driving" the steering wheel and said in a hostile tone, "He was pulling on the stickshift!!!!" I said, (still trying to process what's going on, why he was angry, and I probably sounded distracted), "Oh, thanks."
Well, I guess I didn't react the way he wanted me to react. He was so enraged, his voice was shaking. He raised his voice and said, "It's not a good idea, ma'am!!!" and jumped into his car to leave.
Wow, if looks could kill--I couldn't believe how mad this guy was at me! I think he worked himself up--when I first parked, I noticed a woman waiting in the passenger side of his car (their car was to my right). He must have left the store as I went in, because when I asked the girl behind the counter which lotto paper was for tonight, the store was empty. I think he waited for me, working himself up into a tither.
And something else--I don't know what has happened with people--that they turn to anger and feel so righteous about their anger, instead of kindly stating their feelings. Like, if he'd spoken kindly, I could have given more of a response--I would have explained that my car doesn't have a "stickshift", that it has an automatic transmission and the break has to be pushed down in order for the gears to change. I probably would have also told him that this is the first time I've ever let one of my children sit in my seat like that (and it will be the last)--I thought I was walking in, taking a scan-tron, then walking out. It took longer because there were six scan-trons to choose from and I didn't know which one was tonight's lotto. AND, I would have explained that my 13-year old was also in the car (all of my boys were)--our van windows on the sliding doors and in the back are all dark from the tint and maybe he couldn't see my oldest in the backseat.
On the way home, I was giving him all kinds of excuses: maybe he didn't see that my oldest was in the car, maybe he thought I left my four-year old all alone in the driver's seat with a running engine so I could buy the devil's lotto tickets because that's the derelict mother that I am... Maybe, he and his wife lost a child to some freak accident and they felt like I didn't value my child--who knows?? I am trying to analyze his behavior, because I could not and still cannot figure out where that rage came from!
I don't know. I'm baffled. I think part of my bafflement is that this man doesn't know me from Eve! He doesn't know the paranoid life that I lead, the over-protective obsessive-compulsions my boys have to suffer because I am always on the look-out for danger. Yes, I'm THAT mom.
I learned so much this evening. You know how I've posted recently about the mountain of laundry? And how I've been working on it? And the dryer is dying?
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