At the beginning of the school year, the district staff attends a meeting where we’re addressed by the upper administrators. The new assistant superintendent goes on and on about how creative children are and wants us to hear a poem her grandson wrote.

Assistant Superintendent: “‘If I were in charge of the world, I’d cancel homework and bathtime and dentist visits…’ Isn’t that adorable? Let me read more. ‘There’d be no more “Read a book”… You wouldn’t even have books.’” *Pauses* “Well, I guess that’s not so great, but listen… ‘A chocolate chip cookie would be a vegetable.’ How adorable is that? My grandson wishes cookies were vegetables. How cute! How creative!”

That night, using an anonymous email account, I write to her.

Me: “Your grandson’s poem is actually If I Were In Charge Of The World by Judith Viorst.”

Assistant Superintendent: “Yes, well, his teacher read his class the poem and then had them all fill in the blanks for their own version.”

Lady, don’t try to tell a bunch of teachers that your grandson wrote a pretty well-known poem. We do read. She only lasted a year in our district.

My classmate and I are X-ray students rotating through a clinical site in the city. If you don’t know anything about getting X-rays, the technologist ALWAYS steps back — usually behind a lead wall — to take the image.

My classmate has just finished imaging an older gentleman.

Classmate: “All righty, sir, you are good to go!”

Gentleman: “Thank you! May I ask why you stepped out of the room to take the pictures?”

Classmate: “Well, you know, with the radiation—”

Gentleman: *Wide-eyed* “There was radiation in there?!”

Classmate: “Y-yes, sir. That’s what X-rays are.”

Gentleman: *Still surprised* “I’m telling my wife about this!”

My classmate walks the gentleman back to the waiting room where his wife is.

Gentleman: “[Wife]! Did you know there is radiation in X-rays?!”

Wife: *Pauses to process* “You IDIOT.” *To my classmate* “I’m so sorry about him.” *To her husband* “Let’s go, dear.”

She proceeded to drag him out.

I receive a phone call from an unrecognized number, but I’m in the process of searching for a new job, so I answer. I’m sitting with my family, watching television.

Scammer: “Hello, I am calling because your computer has many viruses.”

I make my voice as distraught as possible.

Me: “Oh, no! My computer is infected with viruses?!”

Scammer: “Ma’am, why are you talking in such a tone? It is very disrespectful, and I do not appreciate it. This is a very serious matter!”

I’m surprised because it’s the first time a scammer has immediately gone on the offensive instead of sticking with their script. Even more surprising, he then hangs up on me.

Me: “He hung up!”

Husband: “Can they even do that?”

Apparently so!

A while back when my health was better, my mother and I routinely walked to a nearby strip mall to dine and buy groceries. My mom, who is capable of walking short distances, couldn’t make the mile-long walk on her own. For this, she used an electric wheelchair.

Federal law considers these devices a part of the person’s body, and state law specifically describes individuals in motorized assisted devices as pedestrians. As a result, if there is a sidewalk, she must use it, while those on skateboards, bicycles, and other modes of transportation are actually forbidden from doing so at all. Furthermore, since her chair is pretty much “wheel legs” by law and not a form of transportation, she is not required to have any form of vehicle insurance to use it.

During one particular trip, my mom and I found the disabled ramp to the strip mall’s side not so much blocked by an illegally parked vehicle as actually occupied by it. Some person had simply driven his very nice car and placed it directly on the ramp itself. This presented a problem for my mom: we had no phone, and it was unreasonable for either of us to wait for this car to just go away. She decided to try to go around the car — arguably not the best choice, but there weren’t many choices here — and turned down her wheelchair speed to make it easier.

She hit a bump, her chair jerked, and she dinged the corner of the car’s bumper.

Apparently, the owner of the car was inside the restaurant we were going to enter. Since the ramp was in plain view of the seating area, he saw it happen, and we were approached by a very well-dressed and angry individual who began to scream at my mom for dinging his car. Among the many things he shouted, the one that stuck out the most was, “I bet you don’t even have insurance!”

My mom is perfectly capable of handling herself, and if she had wanted to, she was almost certainly capable of making this guy back down into a corner by out-screaming him. Furthermore, other members of my family are highly prone to this exact type of behavior, and from my experience, I know that the best thing I can do is stand back and let things take their course. That said, I wasn’t going to let that accusation go. I informed the man, not quite screaming or cussing but very much impolitely, that my mom was not legally required to have insurance and that, unlike her wheelchair, his car was actually not allowed to be on the sidewalk at all.

At that point, this guy whipped out his cell phone and called the police to report a vehicle collision with an unlicensed motorist.

That was when his bad decisions started to turn on him. His screaming attracted the attention of the restaurant’s owner. She was half his size, at least twice his age, and apparently in some way related to him. And when he hung up the phone, she was already there, screaming at him about abusing her customers.

I don’t know exactly what was said after that. The two argued — I’m not sure the exact language, but I definitely didn’t speak it — and the owner proved herself more than capable of outshouting this guy. This went on for a bit while we stood there in awe.

After a while, a police cruiser pulled up, and two officers stepped out to find that those two were screaming back and forth at each other, there was an illegally parked motor vehicle, and the “unlicensed motorist” was a woman in a wheelchair. They took over and excused us from the scene. We were hungry, so we went inside to eat.

This was a fast food restaurant with four tables. We took the one farthest from the scene, and I took the seat facing the window. The entire time, the owner kept coming over to apologize profusely and ask us if we needed anything. We just kept telling her that we were okay and that it wasn’t her or the restaurant’s fault. As we finished our food and prepared to leave, we spotted a tow truck pulling up the scene outside and two very angry and clearly out of patience officers handcuffing the driver.

We’ve been back to the restaurant many times since and have seen the car a few times as well — always parked well away from the ramp in the middle of the parking lot. We never saw the driver again, though.

Did you enjoy this story? Check out other stories like this one in our roundup: 15 Stories About The Ableism That Wheelchair Users Have To Put Up With

I’m at a hotel waiting to check into my room. It’s long after check-in time.

Me: “Do you have an estimate of when my room will be ready?”

Clerk: “One of your rooms is ready, but the other still hasn’t been cleaned.”

Me: “One of my rooms? It’s just me. I should only have one room.”

Clerk: “One room?” *Checks the computer* “I think I see the error. Okay, I’ll cancel one of those rooms for you. Is there anything else?”

Me: “Just the key to my room.”

Clerk: “Oh, that room still hasn’t been cleaned.”

Me: “Uh, how about you cancel that room and give me the clean one?”

Clerk: *Pauses* “Yes, that would work.”