Confrontation

Because I live in a liberal bubble where everyone is respectful of one another, I rarely ever run into people who are blatantly rude af. I mean, occasionally, I let someone enter traffic with a hand gesture and they don’t wave back “thank you”, but that’s about the worst of it.

However, I live next to a retirement community (pictured below) and occasionally I get a sexist comment about my ability to parallel park and sometimes I see a few people standing outside who look generally miserable or lost.

But today, dear readers, I had the audacity to park in a designated parking area and this lady (also pictured below) who was walking her dog and forcing it to wear an embarrassingly out-of-season holiday sweater on a 60-degree day decided to totally. bug. out. on. me.

I saw her when I parked and was going to say that her dog was cute, not because it was, but because that’s the nice thing to do, and she got the first word in. She exclaimed, “You’re really going to park right there?”

I froze because as I mentioned, these situations are foreign to me. Thankfully, I was with a person equally as reasonable as myself who had my back on this one. Most of the dialogue was probably spoken by her cool-headed self as I stood watching it unfold in the through-fare. I was unable to comprehend what demon speak was frothing from this undesirable person.

“It’s a totally normal parking spot. We’re allowed to park here.”

“Oh, so you think it’s just okay to block the sidewalk”

“Well the entrance to the sidewalk is right there, and there’s plenty of space for people to walk by.”

“You think it’s legal to block the sidewalk?”

“I really don’t see the problem here but if it bothers you so much I can move my car.”

And then I walked towards my car to appease this spiteful war-god of a woman and then I realized, that I will not let shame win. NOT TODAY DEAR READERS. I shut my car door, didn’t move the car, and walked into my home where I took an angry, hot shower and then proceeded to talk shit about her on the internet.

In case any of you know my driving record, and are doubting the validity of my statement, I acquired this court sketch of the incident:

I hope that today if you are having a trying time, work customer service, or encounter a vengeful gypsy with a bone to pick, that you take a stand, not be afraid to speak up, and do not appease your oppressors. You park that car baby, and you walk away.