I went to the grocery store to get some French bread for a spaghetti dinner. I love spaghetti and today was a good day for good spaghetti. I had a lot of things on my mind and felt like I was preoccupied with things that I had no control over, so spaghetti and the night drive to buy the French bread would be good for me. I don't usually drive around trying to find a parking spot closest to the door, most of the time I just park in the first open spot I see. This particular time I happen to park at the other end of the parking lot, so I had to walk across the whole lot to get to the store.

I went in, bought my bread and was walking toward my car when I saw this guy walking toward me from the other end of the parking lot. He was walking with an exaggerated side to side motion as if he was angry. I walked slowly toward my car realizing that soon our paths were going to lead directly to each other. I took a step to the side and he took a step to the side keeping directly in front of me. I sized him up. He was about my size and as we got closer to each other I began to wonder what he intended to do and if I could take him in a fight. I'm not a fighter - the only fight I've ever been in was back in high school with a guy they called "Giant Paul" and I won't even say how that ended, but with a name like "Giant Paul" you can imagine how it ended - let's just say that David doesn't always slay the giant.

I looked around for anything that may help if this guy started anything and realized all I had for protection was a loaf of baked French bread. If it came down to it, I guess I could beat him over the head with the loaf of French bread and make a run for it. I moved to the side again, our eyes locked as he moved the same way. I knew we were going to have a confrontation, but I didn't know what to expect from him. He continued to walk towards me with his exaggerated side to side walk only now he made this face that looked like he was real angry. If the situation had been different his facial expression would have been comical, but at the time I just thought that I was dealing with someone who wanted to intimidate me or beat the hell out of me and steal my loaf of hot freshly baked French bread. The distance between us closed quickly. To be honest, I didn't know what to do. He kept his eyes on me as we approached each other. I could hear each of his footsteps as they pounded on the payment, bringing him closer to me, closer to the confrontation. My heart was beating faster as we were almost face to face with each other. I tried one last time to side step the guy, but it was no use, he moved in the same direction.

I imagined the headline “Local guy killed in the Albertson's parking lot…clutching his freshly baked French bread in his hands.”

“I can take him,” I kept telling myself as our paths crossed. He looked at me and raised his hands. I waited for him to throw the first punch, but he didn't. He did something totally unexpected. He brought his hands to his mouth and pulled the corners up into a smile, and then he pointed at me. He made his mad face again and then pulled his mouth into a smile once more - and once again he pointed at me. I couldn't help but start laughing. He then smiled a real smile and gave me the thumbs up sign, then he held out his hand for me to shake it. I shook his hand and laughed again. I was still laughing when I got to my car. I thought about what had just happened. I guess I had been preoccupied with so much stuff that is going on in my life that I didn't even think about how it was affecting me or how I was being seen by others. It took a stranger who without any words whatsoever made me realize that I was taking things too seriously and worrying too much about things that I have no control of.