Friday, December 18, 2009

Psycho

Holy mother of all scares!
Do I have a psycho magnet or something? Can they smell me?
Today as I was walking my usual 10 minutes stretch towards work, i was approached by an older man, I would say 50 or so, wearing a hat and sporting a walking cane, and he started by stating his desire to be respectful to me. He then proceeded to ask me if I was one of the undercover cops that followed him. I told him no. He asks: "Are you sure?" " Yes, I'm sure."
"Cause this area is full of them, at all times, full of undercover cops watching me."
"OK"
A jogger passes by, and the crazy dude stops and watches the jogger as he leaves, and then asks me suspiciosly: " Is he with you?"
"Um, no."
He then asks me if I clean houses in the gated comunity nearby. (Yes, I usually clean houses while wearing high heels, makeup and a cute braided updo.)
I tell him no, but refuse to tell him where I work, cause I am not that crazy, and hell, if i had had the iPod just a bit louder, he wouldn't only know where I work, he could have followed me in. I was almost to the entrance... (I guess that means I should start paying attention to what happens around me, no more iPod listening while I walk, which sucks bigtime 'cause that is the only time I get to just lose myself to music and think my own thoughts. It really, really sucks. )
He told me his name a few times (Can I say it on the internet? Will it violate any of his rights, and will he be able to Google it and find this post, get furious and try to kill me?... ) and where he worked. He knew that I walked this road almost every day, and gave me his card in case the undercover cops, or the federal judges that live in the gated comunity, or the joggers, or anyone gave me any trouble. It was a card of the business he said he worked for, but his name was nowhere in it. Instead, on the blank side of a business card there was the name of his mother, handwritten with huge infantile letters, some capitals, some not. He told me to call his mother, and she would get him a message. (I guess that means they don't allow him his own phone. She might serve as a filter. )
This entire conversation took about 3 minutes, and scary minutes they were. (I am not measuring it in "scared minutes", but in how long I took to reach my destination. I took 4 minutes longer than usual.)
I said good by as soon as I could, and went to my building, checking to see he was gone before entering. I had promised my youngest sister to photograph the upside down christmas tree they put in the lobby, but she will have to wait, 'cause there was no way I was going to linger in the fully lit lobby in case the creep decided to follow.

So, what should I do now?
I suppose I should be varying my schedule, so that he can't follow me as easily. But the road is a straight line. The only way I could do that is to ask permission from the people in the gated comunity to use their roads as detours. That could work.
But what I really should be doing is getting my driver's license. I stopped when I got the new specs, because I needed time to get used to the way they warped distances. But then, inertia set in, and I have not returned yet. I really, really should. I will call the teacher today.
But maybe I should also take some self-defense classes. No tae-kwon-do or any of the showmanship stuff. Krav Maga is whatI would like. Don't know if there are teachers in Puerto Rico. I'd better find out.

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