Women ARE from mars or Jersey.

I'm standing in a long line at LL Bean recently and observed a situation. I was last in line and behind me, approaching from two different directions, were 2 women...and this is how it began. One was a lone women with a large tote over her shoulder huffing and puffing her way along. The other was a women and man carrying a few smaller misc items in their arms. The women and man sideways glanced and caught the direction of the other women....she was headed for the line. The couple hustled and quick stepped while the other lady cut a corner, technically cheating, and arrived behind me first. The initial thought that struck my funny bone was that the winded women basically hurried along only to be first at being last in a very long line. A NANO second later the couple ascended on her. They began to assert body language...obviously annoyed that this women broke the "approaching a long line civilized" rule in the shopping code of conduct book. Their hands on their hips, lips pursed, shifting from one foot to the other. Then they huffed and moaned and whispered without using a whispering voice that "She was so rude!" and "Can you believe some people?". A few moments went by and the single women gathered he normal breathing pattern; she stared directly ahead. She looked past my nosey ease dropping and curious overt stares. She was rock solid still, gazing directly ahead at nothing with confidence. She had acquired her position in line. By George, SHE was not last, and SHE had won. The other couple began to shift their criticism's elsewhere, LL Bean was too be blamed. They felt there should be more personal. I envisioned line bouncers wearing all black and head sets. I set for a moment day dreaming and allowed my imagination and the background of their conversation to paint a picture...laughing to myself at their intensity and frustrations. Then without a warning everything changed. The couple somewhere in dialog had mentioned New Jersey in all it's splendor and basically, how the stores there are far superior to ours...pretty much saying Mainers cut lines and we suck. THEN the other women turns, relaxing her rigid "I'm the winner off the LL Bean line race!" stance. She says with a huge smile to the couple,"Are you's from Jersey???" They return the huge warm friendly smile and say with love and enthusiasm, "YES! Are you??". The warm chatter begins and I look desperately for something like an airplane bag to puke in. The women giggle and talk loudly while the man stands quietly staring ahead. I am certain, without a shadow of doubt, he is utterly confused. He says NOTHING. The two women are the best of friends by the time we reach the registers. They have exchanged emails and phone numbers. They know each others shoe size, what they have each bought at Freeport, the names of their children, and the year they all graduated for high school. They also have agreed that we, as Mainers, are screwballs, and that men are the hardest people to shop for and understand. How does this happen? Funny huh? Women....we are something else aren't we????