This morning the weirdest thing happened. I accidently stepped on the foot of someone sitting down on the bus. I immediately politely said, Excuse me. Then two stops later this man goes into a big tirade accusing me of not saying excuse me to him . Then I say, Excuse me, to him again, this time a little more audible. Then he goes into yet another production number about me not saying excuse me to him. This time I was angry. I felt as though he was bullying me. I loudly said, Excuse me, to him for the third time, this time loudly pointing out that I said it three times to him. I even asked him how many times did he expect one person to apologize to him in the course of one morning. I had never been this angry before on a bus. My voice was actually quivering towards the end because I could not believe how angry I was.

A man on the bus as he was leaving said to me that he thought the man was being a jerk and that if the man was really any type of gentleman instead of complaining and forcing me to apologize to him several times he would have offered me a seat. I was taken aback by this. The reason was that I was not sure if I was in the wrong or right about speaking up and getting angry. Apparently, I was in the right to speak up against him. The man was being a bully in making me apologize to him several times.

Then after I got off the bus yet another man came up to me to tell me that he thought the man was being an asshole and that he wanted to speak up on my behalf. I understand why he did not. Times as they are, who knows if the man was carrying a gun and looking for a reason to use it. Frankly, I thought the man whose foot I stepped on was either hopped up on drugs or drunk.