I'm pushing my cart through the Vons grocery store minding my own business on a brief trip to pick up some steaks for dinner and wood for the fireplace.
As I roll it past a table with a Christmas display, the tablecloth catches the wheel of the cart and pulls this horribly ugly nutcracker statue off the table.
SMASH
It breaks into a ton of pieces that spread across the floor. I totally did it, but at the same time not really my fault because the tablecloth was hanging onto the ground just asking to be pulled by my vagrant shopping cart.
I had pushed my cart around an older man who was standing next to the table talking on his cell phone and when the fugly statue met its demise he turns to me with a disgusted glare and proceeds to make a very exaggerated effort to step over the mess and walk away.
Really? You can't even acknowledge what happened.
Acceptable human responses would be: "Are you OK?" "Need some help?" "Want me to tell someone?"
Or in the very least walk away without the glare followed by the over-the-top stepping-by-the-mess show.
I was kinda stunned. Yeah, it's a little embarrassing to cause a $10 hideous gnome elf to explode on the floor of a grocery store...but is the old dude's judgment of me needed too? Have you never dropped something!?
Of course being the ass that I am I yelled to him, "Walk away, sir! Walk away!"
I picked up some of the pieces and a few seconds later a friendly store employee walked over and told me he'd take care of the rest.
As I later pushed my cart to the checkout I passed him again--he was still on his phone--glaring at me some more. Overheard as I passed: "...and then he yelled, walk away..."
Damn right, I did.
So...rude or not rude?
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