Does making someone feel like a jerk, make me a jerk?

I haven’t been grocery shopping in a couple of weeks because it is very difficult to push a cart while using crutches and it’s even harder to navigate a busy grocery store in an electric cart.  Today while turning into the Smith’s parking lot I noticed someone backing out.  They were in the closest spot to the entrance that wasn’t a handicap spot.  I signaled with my blinker and waited for them to back out. As I was waiting someone coming from the other direction decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of their superior angle and pull into the spot right in front of me.  As I pulled past the car in pursuit of a less desirable spot I made eye contact with the other driver. She had a large smirk on her face and wasn’t bothered at all by what she had done. I knew I needed to make her regret it, and I knew just how I was going to do it.

I pulled into a spot much further back and jumped out of my car as quickly as possible, grabbed both my crutches and started moving towards the entrance right past her car. As soon as she saw that I was on crutches she jumped out of her car and started apologizing for taking the parking spot. I’m sure she had good intentions but I knew if I allowed her to apologize she then she wouldnt feel so bad, and that just isn’t my style at all. Our conversation went something like this.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were on crutches”

“Didn’t you see me waiting with my turn signal on?”

“Oh no I didn’t… but if I ha…(interrupted)

“Oh, well I thought you saw me waiting to park there and then just decided to pull in anyway. Since you didn’t see me waiting there you didn’t do anything wrong, besides you look like you’re in a bigger hurry than I am. Have a great day!”

She gave me kind of a blank stare as I walked away from her with a big smile on my face and grabbed a cart.

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