Gas prices lately have made people crazy. But when you find regular gas at $4.03 — I think that makes the mania worse than usual.

Take my most recent fill-up encounter. On the way to Michael’s daycare in Encino is my “ghetto gas station,” an Arco with reliably lower gas prices than the ones in Studio City (where I work) or in the Conejo Valley (where I live). On Friday, this station advertised its regular gas at $4.03 a gallon, when last week it was $4.15. I was muttering “hot damn!” as I pulled in.

I pulled in….and waited. I was in the right position for one pump, but someone was already waiting for it, so I let her through….and she proceeded to amble into the gas station. Argghh…I hate that. Pay at the pump, lady, people are in a hurry! I spied a truck in front of her preparing to leave, and didn’t see anyone waiting behind it, so I got myself into position to slide in if he did leave. The truck left, I squeezed between two cars and only as I was settling my car alongside the pump did I see an SUV had turned around and was backing up for the pump I was at. Too late….so I jumped out, paid at the kiosk and turned around. A lady had walked up to me, with my car between us. Here’s the gist of our conversation:

“Didn’t you see us waiting for the pump?”

“No, I didn’t see you waiting. I’m sorry, but I’ve already paid. What do you want me to do?”

“Don’t you know etiquette? There are people waiting on this side.”

“Look, I’m already here, I’ve already paid and I’m pretty sure I got here before you did.” I start unscrewing the gas tank cap. “If you like, you can keep complaining to me as I pump my gas?”

A few people, after I told them this story, laughed and said I should have gestured to my belly and pulled the pregnancy card. I’m pretty sure my belly was apparent. I think that, because she was Asian and she saw I was Asian, she thought that she could come out and reprimand me. Unfortunately, I don’t really care what strange Asian women think.

Later, as I was leaving (for the record, I pumped my gas quickly and got out of there in record time because I was running late to drop Mikey off), I am pretty sure I saw her husband walk by with a pleasant, polite look on his face. A look that said to me “…I told her to just stay in the car.”