22 of 31: Madder

On many occasions when James asks about how my day went, I've started the conversation with, "You know what made me mad?" To this obviously rhetorical question, he always replies, "You mean *madder*?"  Okay, okay...I get his point.  I have a passionate manner of speaking (and typing) that makes me seem angrier than I really am.


The reason that I started this post with such a lengthy explanation is to emphasize that the fact that I'm so very mad!  Not the usually level of mad that's actually not mad at all.  I mean shaking with anger, perseverating over the scene and wishing I'd escalated the situation to violence by smacking the other party upside the head.  Strangely, though, in thinking about it over and over (and over and over...) again, I realize that it's not what happened that made me so angry, it's the other party's reaction--or lack thereof--to it that has me reeling and teetering on the edge of sanity.

We took what was a mostly wonderful trip to the tide pools today with A1's Cub Scout Den and I got to teach about the different phyla commonly found there so I was a pretty happy camper.  After the boys each located at least one example of intertidal lifeform, they were allowed to play.  I was so pleased with both the materials presented at the meeting as well as how receptive the boys were to it so I was able to relax, but then suddenly, one of the other moms calls out, "Oh my God, is that ?"  Yes, yes it was!  He was running as fast as he could, crying and screaming, from a deranged dog.  It was quite a scene, but I was able to chase the both of them and grab the dog's leash and when his owner came up she nonchalantly explained, "Oh, I thought your son was playing with him."  What the what?!?!  She grabbed the leash and walked away.  I went screaming after her as she fast-walked across the entire beach ignoring me, refusing to turn back as I ineffectively bellowed me excuse-me's and ma'am's at her.  When I finally caught up to her, I told her that the signs at the beach entrance clearly state that dogs were only allowed before 6am and after 5pm and that they were certainly never allowed to wander without their owners at the other end of their leash (it was reported to me from another mom that the dog was not with his owner when he started chasing A1 so it's not like the dog slipped away from her hands).  The woman said, "I'm leaving," and turned around and didn't say anything else as I escorted her to the entrance.  

Never once did she offer a single, if haphazard and meaningless, apology.   She illegally brings her dog (grrr...no lifeguard on duty at this teeny beach) to terrorize children and she doesn't think to apologize and had the nerve to ignore me as I walked the entire length of the beach (yes, that's how long it took me to catch up to A1--he'd been chased THAT far!) trying to get her attention as she meandered back to her friends.  I'm quite certain she would have stayed to terrorize other innocent children had I not persisted.  From this interaction, I can surmise two things.  Either she didn't offer an apology because she is a complete idiot who didn't see the inherent gravity of the situation or she is an evil b!tch with a history of violating others and feeling no remorse.  Of perhaps, there is the third option.  Maybe she is both stupid AND evil.

See?  Mad.  This is what I sound like when I'm mad.  Madder.

The boys have yet to show much interest in reading the text here but do ask when there's lots of it.  So I'm going to post another pic from today so that they're thrown off the scent: