I came out of the grocery store with my one bag of groceries and headed towards my car.  I gently tossed the bag in the passenger side and got in. Just as I started the car up, a driver in an SUV came up behind me with the obvious intention of taking the empty parking spot beside me.

I waited as he drove in, but then he stopped before he had fully pulled into the spot, effectively blocking me from pulling out. I thought there was some reason that he had to stop, so I waited a little longer.

Eventually, I looked over at him and realized he was also looking at me and just sitting there. Then it occurred to me that he was unable to fully pull into his spot because there was an empty shopping buggy, the front of which was just sticking into the spot he was trying to drive into.

What also dawned on me slowly was that he thought I had left the buggy there.

I tried to signal that I was not the one who left it there, but then he began to slowly shake his head at me as if trying to shame me. For something I didn’t do.  There were plenty of parking spots around, but he chose to stay exactly where he was and stare at me in condemnation, keeping me pretty much trapped. I couldn’t move, so there was nothing to do but get out of my car. I thought of the futility of again trying to tell him it wasn’t my buggy and by this time I was completely frustrated, so I went over to the buggy and moved it. Of course, how lame would it be to only move it so he could get in the spot? So I took it all the way over to the cart drop off. I was fuming as I started walking back towards my car. I was going to tell him! But by this time he had exited his car and was in the grocery store.

So I jumped in my car, fumbled around in my purse and found a notepad and a pen and with shaking hands, I wrote a note. I put the note on his windshield. It said “IT WASN’T MY BUGGY! HAVE A NICE DAY.” All upper case. Just like that.

It wasn’t the first thing I thought of writing. And I’ve thought of at least a million wittier things to say since then. But you know, in the heat of the moment, the smartest, funniest, wittiest things don’t always come to mind. Just the rude ones.

I’m glad I didn’t write down any of those.

Feeling better now that’s off my chest….