There's no excuse for you.

Walking across the parking lot of one of our rural city's minor malls, completely and utterly engaged in a conversation with myself (1), and snapped to only just in time to swerve around someone who, weighed down as he was with a giant coffee and not the cart full of groceries I was schlepping around the icy slog, had apparently been equally involved in some kind of in-his-head thing.

Only just realizing what had happened I turned to apologize and instead heard Joe Coffee Cup saying, "Excuse you."

See what he did there? He called attention to my thoughtless act by pointing out how rude I was by being more rude.

Clever, right?

Needless to say, any feelings of remorse I had immediately left me.

I also resisted the urge to yell after him, "You don't know me."

So, when all was said and done, I think I ended up totally on top.

1. Okay, actually, I was ranting about a situation over which I have no control. You know how you do.