Mean to Me

Some guy was mean to me today. I was walking my dogs and it made some guy mad. He told me to “control my dogs.” One of them was laying down. He was really angry. He had a salad in his hand and it looked like he was in a hurry to get back to work. I wondered where he worked. He seemed to be really important. I hope he worked someplace shitty where his boss is mean to him. But probably not. He probably was important. I got kind of flustered and I said that I had a right to walk my dogs wherever I wanted. He said one of them touched him. He didn’t like when dogs touched him I guess. I like when dogs touch me. But I guess that’s a personal preference. I said something else to him. I think he was surprised I talked back to him. But, I wanted to do better. I wanted to say something witty. I wanted to make fun of him and make him feel small like he did to me. I wanted to sound really smart and talk about white privilege but end by calling him a dick or something. Mix some smarts with some street. Just so he knew I had range. I could do both. But I was caught off guard. I was thinking of other things. My shoulders hurt today so I was thinking about that. I wondered if I slept wrong or I was stressed out or maybe I’m dehydrated. I thought about what I wanted to make for lunch and how I bought a bunch of fresh vegetables but all I want to eat is the frozen fish sticks. I thought about my sister and how she hates her life and what I could do to make it better. I thought about my belly and whether I look like I’ve had kids even though I haven’t. I thought about my dogs and I wondered why one of them was already laying down. Was she hot? Or sick? Or just tired? Or maybe just lazy. I wondered if there was anything good on tv I could watch while eating my lunch. I like to have things to look forward to. It makes getting through the day a lot easier. I thought about my nails and how I did a good job painting them. I wondered how long until they started chipping and whether or not I could start being the type of person who re-paints them when they look bad. Then the guy yelled at me and I got flustered. And for the rest of the walk, I thought about him.