A man walked up to me, and began walking toward my office building beside me, literally standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me, his face only inches from mine.
He turned his head to the side, starring at my face, close enough that I could practically feel his breath.
“You are a beautiful and delicious chick,” he said. “Can I sit with you for a while?”
Delicious?
“I’m sorry, I’m married,” I said, upping my stride.
He continued to walk beside me, making me very uncomfortable. I tried to just ignore him, despite the fact that he was so close to me that I could literally blow into his face and he would need to blink.
I was clearly on edge, but I work in a very populated part of downtown Orlando and knew people were around, so I wasn’t completely freaking out. When I was about six feet from the door of my building, he turned around, finally leaving my side as I walked into the building.
I exhaled immediately, quickly heading toward the elevators and into my cubicle to ask the other women I work with if they saw this strange man and if they experienced anything similar on their way into work.
They hadn’t seen him or experienced his unnerving personality… thankfully. Freaky deaky.
It was definitely an odd thing to experience so early in the morning and I am grateful nothing else occurred… other than the fact that two of the guys I work with are now calling me “Delicious.”
Lunch
Lunch was slightly mundane compared with the drama from this morning.
Mundane but, dare I say, delicious?
Thursday Lunch
Lunch today included one toasted everything-flavored bagel thin, a large, sliced green pepper and leftover chicken soup from Tuesday night’s dinner.
Peppa
Doughy
I used the bagel for dippin’ into the soup which was fantastic. I only wish I had some oyster crackers, too!
Question of the Afternoon
What is the oddest thing a stranger has called you or said to you?
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O M G what a freak show! I agree with some of the others, I’d definitely pay attention to my surroundings especially now that it’s getting dark outside really early! Maybe leave in groups or something? Hopefully he is not a threat or anything! I once had a guy told me while I was withdrawing money from an ATM…”I’d break the ATMs for you and give you all the money in them because you deserve it all” HUH?! Another freak show!
That is definitely creepy; this happens to me in DC (and other cities) all the time. One time in Atlanta, a guy followed me into the hotel I was staying at – I promptly walked to the front desk and said “this man is NOT with me” and they called security.
Totally reasonable for you to be a bit shaky about it for a while.
That is so weird. I would have been so uncomfortable! I’ve had this happen a number of times when I used to live in Minneapolis. All I want to do is get away from these people!
omg what a freak!!! some people have no boundaries/common sense/brains, makes me sick! you should carry pepper spray with you. I keep one on my keys so it’s always on me
I agree with the person who posted about how as women we try to be too nice. Years ago I was going to work and a young man approached me and said “Hey how have you been” as he walked up to me, it was 5 am and I was on my way to work and thought I mistakenly didn’t recognize him so trying to be friendly I said “hey how are you”. The man was walking up to me fast and leaned in for what I thought was a hug, again I am thinking I must know this person and I did not want to be rude. I have no memory of what happened, but woke up 48 hours in the hospital where I had been since being viciously attacked by this person. All he got was the $50 bucks I had in my wallet and he left me laying on the street until a nice passerby called the police.
Whew! I’m glad you survived!
that is terrifying. i am so sorry you went through something like that. 🙁
That is definitely creepy. As for weird compliments, I used to work at a pawn shop, which attracted am interesting breed of shopper. One of these interesting shoppers, a very smelly, very funny old man named Dale, told me I looked expensive. Was it because I was wearing nice clothes? Or was it because I looked like I would cost a lot to buy? Who could know!?
There is a tie for the weirdest: “Your teeth are so perfect… I just want to touch them” (coupled with slow moving pointer finger moving toward my face) and “You’re so beautiful, I would kill 5,000 people in your name” (um, thanks but no thanks).
I swear I have a blinking light on my forehead that says freak magnet cause I get weird stuff like that all the time. I even have had guys come up to me in the gym and say your hot and have a nice butt and put his hand on my back. Freaky
Yikes. I hate creepy guys like that.
This sleazy looking guy at least in his 40’s was mowing the lawn next door (not my neighbor though) and cat-callied me when I got home from high school. He’d done this several times before as well. I’d recently lost a bunch of weight, and not being used to that kind of attention, he made me really uncomfortable. Or at least it did until I went inside, told my mother and she went outside to tell him to back off… with a baseball bat in hand. She has strong Mama Bear instincts.
I work in a psych hospital, and needless to say I get obnoxious comments all the time lol. I guess since I have to handle it professionally while I’m there, recognizing they are severely mentally ill, when it happens on the street I make a scene. I had a similiar incident happen where a creep stood super close to me and was making inappropriate remarks. I spoke out very loudly, “Get away from me right now or I will call the cops.” He froze, I said, “NOW,” he ran away, and people around me started clapping haha. Some woman commented that she wishes she could act like that but “feels bad.” The way I see it, no one has the right to invade our personal space, it is not a compliment, and we as women need to not feel bad and speak up more! That’s my little rant, haha. Love your blog!
Great post!
I’ve hitch-hiked a lot over the years, and my oddest encounter was with a fantasy-book aficionado who told me I looked like a fairy, and then admitted to picking me up because he thought my fairy genes and his earthen DNA would create magical spawn. I told him I was flattered, but that he could drop me off at the next gas station. Then I showed him my knife. We made it to the gas station in record time…
I’m gonna echo some of the above comments and suggest you vary your routine a little for the next few days. Most people are harmless, but it’s not worth taking the chance.
AHHH! Creepy! This happened to me yesterday too! I had my car towed while I was at work. I thanked him and went back to work. The tow guy then preceded to text me while i was at work ( which I didn’t know about since I was in meetings) and then was outside of my building at 5. Thank gosh I walked out with my boss! I hate creepers!
omg! that’s so scary! :O
the weirdest thing was me standing on the corner and this homeless guy said, hey! you want some bacon to go with those eggs?
i was holding a carton of eggs. eeksss.
I hate creeeeepy things like that. Makes me super uncomfortable.
that is super creepy!! I live in FL as well and have had a guy circle the parking lot at the beach watching me, with my FOUR kids, walk to my car, luckily I had a weird feeling he was following me so I kept trying to avoid going to my car until I could find a friendly stranger to walk me to my car. I asked a random girl to stand in the parking spot next to my car while I buckled my kids in, which thankfully she did. As soon as he saw me get to my car he tried to park in the empty spot next to my car and thankfully the girl was standing there so he couldnt and he sped off. She stayed there and until all my kids were in the car. Goodness knows what he wanted or wouldve done! People are just crazy everywhere!
Please be careful! Not to be an alarmist, but there are some crazy people in this world. What a creep, to make you so uncomfortable like that. Hope you never see him again!
Um…you can stop by and pick up my other thing of mace at any time. I don’t like that story and I don’t think Mama or Papa Bream will either.
I had this guy that worked for an airline follow me off a plane and ask to eat lunch with me. He started asking really personal questions, and if “he’d ever see me again”. It was sort of fun though because I got to make up a whole story about why that would NOT happen…let’s just say he was not my type.
I worked at a bagel shop in college and I had a man (from Transylvania no less) tell me that I “would look very good, barefoot, in front of ‘de’ stove, PREGNANT.” I lost the ability to talk at that point and my co-worker shouted back “That’s not what she’s going to school for!”
O.M.G…yeah I would be stopping on the way home for some “peppa” spray for sure. Delicious? Gives me the heebie jeebies. Be careful!
Wow what a scary incident! I’m glad there were no repeats later on. I live in Baltimore which is full of characters and frequently guys will say “hi” to me and my friends on the street near our school. Once a guy said “You look like a model, girl!” which is pretty funny considering I’m barely pushing 5’3”!