this is the land of crazy people, today's edition

So, when I finally got the babies down for a nap this afternoon, I left the teen in charge of things and went out to run some errands. Last of them was the grocery store, and I went into the local Stop & Shop, picked up a basket, got myself some sliced turkey for lunch next week, some bread, a few ingredients for tonight's dinner, and other random items. I went up the checkout and got in line and unloaded my items on the belt behind the customer in front of me, and when I was just taking out the last item -- the loaf of bread, not that it matters -- this man comes up from behind me and pushes past me and puts his items down on the belt right in front of mine without a word.

"Excuse me," I said, and pointed at the customer at the front of the line, "are you with him?"

"No," the man says.

I stared at him for a few seconds, just not understanding, then said, "then, can I ask what you're doing? I'm already in line here, you can't just cut in front of me."

"My stuff's in front of yours now, so now I'm next, not you," he said.

I stared at him for another couple of seconds. "So, you're just the biggest fucking asshole on the planet, then?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I'm in front of you."

I started to argue with him, and the manager came over and wanted to know what was going on, and had me move to a different register and rung me up, and I actually got out of there before Asshole Guy. But I was shaking so badly it took me most of the drive home to calm down at all, and I've got to admit, this has been bothering me ever since. I mean, who DOES shit like that?

Part of me wishes I'd picked up his groceries and tossed them in my empty basket and dumped them under the end of the checkout, but really, I know that there are a higher number of actual crazy people in this town than many places, and while sometimes crazy is funny, sometimes crazy is dangerous, and it's probably for the best that I didn't. But I can't help but feel victimized in this totally random way, and can't help but think about how my ideas of how people should behave are so obviously out of touch with the reality that a lot of human beings just plain suck, and even though I keep trying to do things I find myself totally dwelling on that five minutes of my day, and I haven't yet shaken the anger or astonishment in the slightest.

Thanks, weird magnet. Not what I needed.