Don't go away mad; just go away

I went to Office Depot this morning on my way home from school to get printer paper. I pulled into the parking lot, parked, and began quickly walking toward the door, full of coffee and a mind to get things off my to-do list as fast as possible. An older man stopped me on my way in the door to ask me if I remembered to post my handicap sticker; he pointed to my car with implied accusation. I told him that while those used to be handicap spaces, they were now painted over and I needed no such thing. He countered with "Oh, I just didn't want you to get a ticket," but it seems to me that he rather thought he'd caught me somehow doing something I ought not be doing. I rolled my eyes and went about my way, thinking, "and what the hell business is it of yours where and how I park my car?" The bottom line is, it's none of his business whatsoever. Even if I had parked in a handicap space - which, by the way, I would never do for even a moment - he can phone the police if he likes.

What makes people think they have the right to do such things? My mother is handicapped, but sometimes can walk on her own and at other times with a cane, and yet other times not at all. One day at King Soopers, some crotchety old fucker swore obscenities at my mother when she got out of her car (despite her handicapped license plates) and told her he hoped that someday she might actually need those plates and someone who didn't would take HER space. It was all I could do not to rip physically rip his head off and do you know what he said when I retorted with "my mother has MS, and it's none of your fucking business"? He snorted and walked away. No apology, no blush.

Sometimes it's difficult not to hate the entire world.