I forgot to mention...

I forgot to mention how the trip back from Prague was marred by a couple who accused me of rudeness. I know! Hard to believe, isn't it?

It happened when we got to gate, Orest went with Adriana and Larysa to stand right beside the gate to precipitate boarding, while I fell back with Stefanie because I was searching for something in my bag for her, and wouldn't you know they picked exactly that moment to announce boarding.

I struggled to get through the people who were moving towards the gate, saying "Excuse me, I'd like to rejoin my family.", but at the same time, realized my bag was now gaping open, leaving access to the contents for anyone in the crowd to lift. As my head was turned, trying to zip up said bag, saying "excuse me" all the time, I inadvertantly jostled a woman who said to her partner: "How rude!"
"I did say excuse me," I said to her as I was moving towards the front.
"You did not!" she replies.
"I did!" I respond, although I cannot believe we're engaging in this purile argument, now across 20 feet of people's heads.
At the point Orest joins in, trying to be helpful,
"My wife is just trying to re-join her family, do you mind?"
Then the other husband joins the fray:
"Well, we're just trying to teach your wife some manners!"


Ouch!
Now at this point, normally I would freeze up with confusion at the jibe, then kick myself for hours afterwards thinking of what I should have said, but, having righteous indignation on my side, I had the presence of mind to finish them off with:
"I did say excuse me, but my head may have been turned the other way, so I'm sorry if you didn't hear me!"

Now that should have been the end of it, since we started moving towards the plane, but me being me, I agonized over it the whole plane ride home. If I was guilty of anything, I thought to myself, it was trying to do too many things at once. My whole raison d'etre came into question in that hour and 10 minutes. The worst of it was, the same couple were sitting right behind Orest on the plane, so I had no opportunity to discuss my soul-searching with Orest to gain an objective opinion. (I tend to veer towards paranoia, so it's good to have someone like Orest around to say: Snap out of it, you silly woman!)

So you decide, if you were in a similar situation, what would you say or do?