Andrew gets pushed by a State of CA Employee

On Saturday August 29th Leigh and I attended the "Great California Garage Sale." We arrived at about 10:30 and there there was a stream of folks headed in and out through the large door into the airplane-hanger-like warehouse which was filled with all sorts of cast-offs from the State of California's supply rooms. There was an auto auction going on at the rear of the building and the masses of humanity milled about and waited in various lines to by shopping carts of "stuff."

After about 15-20 minutes, we decided to leave (empty-handed); the whole scene was pretty off-putting. . . However, as we headed for the door, we discovered that a cone had been placed in the middle of the doorway and that there was now a woman standing "guard" to make sure that people knew which side of the cone to exit. She was rather pear shaped and in her late 50s - she may have been wearing a Gem sweater - although that may have been my imagination.

The event ended at 12 noon, and by this time there was basically no one entering. . . just a steady flow of folks towards the exit. . . However, the entire side now reserved for "entry" was empty. As we approached, Leigh dutifully stayed right and headed for the correct side of the cone. . . I however began to drift further and further left. . . "sir". . . "Sir". . . "Sir! - Please stay to the right of the cone!" . . . I continued to drift left. . . Now she cast a wary eye at the rest of the stream of folks exiting as though she knew that if she left her post, all sorts of pandemonium might break loose, however, if she didn't I would certainly sneak behind her (exiting the wrong way and thereby subverting her authority and promoting bedlam). . . "SIR!" I drifted further left and headed to the left-most edge of the entry way beyond the reach of her now reaching with her arms arms and gesturing frantically (she reminded me in that moment of a large emperor penguin chick who with outstretched wings attempts to encourage its parent to regurgitate a tasty fish)

"SIR! STAY TO THE RIGHT OF THE CONE!" . . . As I approached within a few feet of the door, as though suddenly making a difficult decision, she stepped laterally, with arms still spread wide and blocked my path completely. "SIR! - STAY TO THE RIGHT OF THE CONE! YOU NEED TO EXIT THE CORRECT SIDE" She looked over her shoulder towards a few of the CHP (California Highway Patrol Officers) standing outside and then began to physically shove me backwards and to my right. . . I did my best to continue to walk forwards, but it would have required me to bowl her over in order to proceed so, with a look of incredulity on my face, I moved to the right and exited.

In terms of Monday morning quarterbacking here are three options of what I should have done:
1) Pretended to be a Football running back and tried a spin move
2) exited the correct way, walked right back in the correct way (repeat 3 or 4 times until she was dizzy from watching me walk around her in circles) then walk whichever way I wanted. . .
3) when she reached out with her arms, I should have embraced her in a hug and thanked her for bringing some sense of order to such a place of insane chaos.