So I get up this morning slicked my hair back in a bun, put on my sweats, and my tennis shoes and made my way to the car dealership to get the car serviced. I got there at 6:53am they open at 7am.  There were no cars at the gate or near the gate so I pulled in right at the gate and waited. I’m thinking great!

A guy walks up and unlocks the gate and waves me in at exactly 7.

I pull in grab my purse and hop out of the car greeted the technician and told him why I was there.  We walked to the service desk he gave me some paper work and as I started walking towards the waiting area I see some other customers I greet them with good morning and a smile.  (Its just a common courtesy that I believe in and practice every day every where I go).

This woman SCREAMS at me: “Don’t smile at me lady, you cut in front of us, we were here first!”

I said (cool, calm, and collected), “Excuse me?  I’m sorry. I didn’t see anyone waiting when I pulled up.”

She screamed “We were all parked in line and YOU just jumped ahead of us!”

At this point I’m getting irritated (I hadn’t had my tall white chocolate mocha from Starbucks and my patience was running thin).  I said “There were no cars at the gate waiting.  I had no intention of cutting anyone.  How was I suppose to know that cars parked on the street away from the gate were in a line?”

Now this screaming woman was a good 100 feet away from me standing by her car…She’s making a scene… She screams “You’ve been here before you know we wait in a line on the street.”

Ok so now I’m thinking line? She’s crossed the line.  I’m about ready to go off. That old DMX song came to mind, you remember the one:

Yall Gon’ Make Me Lose My Mind Up In Here… Yall Gon’ Make Me Act A Fool Up In Here!

I don’t know this lady from a can of paint and she certainly didn’t know me.  She picked the wrong one!  A resolve came over me and before I knew it I had started walking towards her (still calm)… I said “I’ve only been here once during the day I don’t know anything about parked cars waiting in line…” the anger was coming out I got loud with it…next thing out of my mouth was “YOU KNOW WHAT…..”

Mind you…the techs, sales people, and other customers were all watching this go down.  As soon as I said “YOU KNOW WHAT” as I was making my way towards her (I think it was clear what was gonna be what)…one of the techs rushed over and said “It’s a good thing we have more techs than we do cars this morning so we can take care of everyone….” yada yada yada

She shut her mouth and went about her business as did I…but I have to be honest I was hot and was ready for her to say something else while waiting.  She walked by me but didn’t say anything, another lady came and started up a conversation…  I was there for an hour when my car was ready the technician apologized and asked if I was ok.  He explained that this kind of thing happens frequently and that its common sense to wait at the gate not parked on the street.  I agreed.  He went on to tell me how several physical altercations have occured because of that type of misunderstanding…

What did I learn from that situation? That I’ve grown…clearly I still have some growing to do…but when I was confronted by that angry screaming woman at 7 o’clock in the morning… I did not curse her out nor did I lay hands on her (I wanted to).  I remained calm.  Thanks to the technician for stepping in and the grace of God cause that could’ve gotten real ugly.  The other observation is that people are on edge, and some people think that they can just come at folks any kind of way.  Had she approached me differently I probably would have said oh take care of them first….  but her presentation was wack!