Thursday, January 23, 2014

Stalker Alert! (Guest Blogger)

Over the Christmas holiday I wrote an article called Stalk The Halls, and soon after that, in my mailbox was this submission from someone. No name was given, so I can't give her credit where it's due. I'm guessing you'll understand why no name was given after you read this...
I’ve joked before to my friends about stalking a guy’s life because I was interested in him. Let’s say our first date goes really well and my excitement leads me to want more information. In turn I may do a little harmless Google search. But really, I don’t have it in me to impose myself on someone in the physical sense. Let alone do creepy or potentially unwanted things to gain their attention. Okay I’ll just say it, I don’t think that my pride will allow it, but some people have no shame. They can’t be stopped!

Now let me scale back on the dramatics. I wasn’t in fear for my life, but the actions of one select individual did cause me to raise an eyebrow. I’ll run this by you and see if you share my sentiment. His initial approach to asking me out was pretty traditional. Nothing alarming about that, right? We met at a lounge after work in Midtown Manhattan. He sparked up conversation and he seemed nice enough so I accepted the invitation for a date. I’m open to new prospects. Fast forward to post first date. I’d decided that I wasn’t exactly smitten with him so I didn’t make any extra effort to connect with said man. He didn’t do anything specifically wrong or off-putting. The chemistry just failed to pop up from my perspective. I hadn’t exactly excluded him but he wasn’t really on my radar either.

Back to post date, about a week later I’d just walked into my neighborhood bar to meet a girlfriend for a drink when I received a text from him. He asked where I was going? Then he said, “I just saw you.” I looked around for a second, puzzled. I knew that I didn’t see any familiar faces on my walk down the street so I was a little confused. I responded very simply that I was meeting a friend. Once I spotted my girl, I put my phone away and continued to sip and chat with my friend. About 45 minutes later I checked my phone again. Another text. This one said, “Come say hi, I see you.” I’m thinking WTF! I don’t see you. I scanned the room super quick, nothing. No sign of him. A slight panic started to set in and I wanted to slump down on my barstool. It’s no secret that I watch way too many crime drama shows. I’m well-aware that people can be cray cray, and you can’t underestimate them. My girl was giving me the side-eye clueless as to what I was looking at. I hadn’t mentioned the first text to her because I thought nothing of it. After filling her in I showed my girl the text and her eyes got big. Then she asked me where he was…like I knew! That was the unsettling part. 

I don’t like childish moves so my panic quickly turned into an annoyed chick ready to flash. After 10 minutes of uncertainty on my end, this strange bird that I went on a date with comes strolling over to my girlfriend and I smiling. I wasn’t amused. He extended his hand to introduce himself to her immediately. For some reason, he gave off an air of importance, like he and I really had something going on. I gave him the driest interaction that I could conjure up. I wanted to pop him in the head like a little brother who played a bad prank. Maybe he didn’t have any friends tell him that women don’t like men that act creepy. But that wasn’t my problem. There wasn’t much small talk to be had with him, so after the awkward exchange concluded he went back to wherever it was that he came from. At that point I had no desire to ever hear from him again. I was over it.

I know, I know. Some of you are thinking “You should’ve told him that you were no longer interested”. Honestly, my cowardly side came into play and I wanted to avoid the entire situation — mainly him. Not to mention, I didn’t know what type of result I would get by reaching out to him to put an end to things. That may have garnered another creepy interaction. Skip to three weeks later. I receive another random text. He says hello and asks how I’m doing? I responded with one word, “Hey.” He goes on to say, “I just saw you earlier…” First off, that makes no sense. I detect lies. Did you just see me? Or did you see me earlier? It all sounds a little suspect to me. He went on to rundown what I was doing when he saw me and I couldn’t help but get annoyed again. So how did you see me well enough to know exactly what I was doing but you did not announce yourself and make your presence known. That’s strange to me. Especially if you in turn text me after and make me aware that you saw me. I’m not an expert on stalking, and I’ve never had anyone close to me endure a true stalker situation and I’m not sure how things start out, but the coincidences were too strange for my comfort level. Maybe he is not the “sneak into your apartment and hide in the closet waiting for you” type. I don’t know, but I’m just thinking that maybe he and his actions were a bit too strange for my taste.

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