So I saw The Hobbit tonight. I saw it in IMAX in 3D with giant glasses and an american can of Mountain Dew. I won't go into my thoughts on the movie, except that the pale orc looks like something my office mate at Blizzard Carlo Arellano would've drawn... this isn't an art journal, it's a getting it off my chest journal. Today, people have been getting REALLY close to me. I mean REALLY REALLY close. and it's worrying to me because i grew up in Detroit. I grew up in a place where people don't get too close because someone might pickpocket you, or rob you, or take a drunken swing at you. I don;t do well with strangers getting all touch-y feel-y with me... I went to a party once in Seattle where I was asked to join in an on the ground caress-fest. Just a bunch of people (most who knew eachother) rolling about on blankets and cushy pillows in a small room just touching... I passed. It's not because it made me uncomfortable, it's that I once crowd surfed and someone attempted to punish my... man...parts... I don't think the caress thing would be like that, but i think far down the line i would be walking with my daughters and see one of the caressed and just feel odd about the fact that i caressed and was caressed and my old school catholic guilt would kick in and i'd be forced to sit in the car for an hour thinking about life or something... (thank you childhood church memories for making me a complete wreck in social situations) But this is about another day... today...

    I left the house today in a good mood. I scooped up my daughters and headed out to a COSTA coffeehouse where we spent some time being wee lasses and their dad. I was approached by a woman I'd seen on the bus a bit who walked over to us and started telling me how lovely my 5 month old is. then pulling her coat back and touching her cheek... then pulling her hood back and caressing her hair... I know what you're thinking, "slap her" but no, I just let her be odd. She really is a smart woman when we've spoken and i like her ideas and our psuedo-friendship, but she ALSO is someone i ONLY see on the bus once in a blue moon, so it was odd and space bubble-y. She left and a gentleman sat at the table behind us and said, "I've seen you here before..." ...
...
..
.
huh?
"Yes, i've been here before... do...do you work here?"
"no"
"..."
"..."
"... ah... yeah, we like it here, it's relaxing... near the house... just a... a place to come to get out and not be in the cold..."
""near the house?" do you live around here?"
Here's where my detroit sets in, I don't like that question. so i issue non-answers, "well, you know...". He talks a bit, then it gets awkward and he focuses on his morning paper...
Later I decide to go with a friend to see The Hobbit. We plan on meeting at the theatre at 8:40. I left at 8:10 for a 40 minute trip. I get on an empty sunday night bus... just me and the bus driver... no one else... we stop and an older gentleman gets on... and sits by me... right next to me... Detroit sets in and i clench my thigh to make sure my wallet is where it is and sit quietly on the bus with him until my stop. He gets off at the same stop and i get weirded out and book it to the tram to the theatre... I'm reading the posted times for the trams as he slowly comes up the hill to the tram stop and coincidentally is catching the same tram... I walk down the platform because i don't want him sitting next to me on the tram... I look at the times again and feel someone tap my back 3 times. I turn and someone I've never met, says, "alright, buddy, alright.." and walks away...
...
..
huh?
So i check my wallet and keys and mobile again and pretend to lean against the sign all the while trying to rub the vagrant handprint off my back or if he left something on me... yeah, it's how my head works...
I get on the tram and 2 guys walk right up behind me. Behind me to the point where if i slightly turn my head either way i see them clearly. I don't want them to sit with me so i decide to be awkward... I decided right then to walk left, then right and whichever they do not do, i will continue on the way, even if i need to sit with the old man at the other end of the tram... (I know... it's... I don't know why i'm like this) I do it and at first they follow me, then i double back and it ACTUALLY throws them off, they stop and their conversation stops and they look bemused. I get a seat on a tram all my own and am happy. I get to the theatre late and rush in, (them getting off at the same stop) I rush into the theatre, ticket in hand and disappear into Hobbit land... Imagine this... it's a moderately full theatre, my friend is in the middle and I am sat next to two empty seats. I QUICKLY place my coat on one. The SAME two enter the theatre and walk past, talking. I sit and watch the film... halfway through, (probably farther than that) two guys come in and sit next to me... Not a packed theatre, they walk into a 2/3rds over film one moves a plate of nachos (not mine) and the other sitting RIGHT next to me... sits on my coat... I say, "pardon, you're sitting on my coat..." He apologizes and i yank my coat out from under him and he begins watching the movie... The film ends and my mind has gone from "these guys are with the original two" to "hey, those dudes who shot up the theatres, they came in late, right?" (trust me, someone somewhere broke me and i too want to know what happened that my head does this) I concentrate on the film as much as i can, but it becomes snippets. My head is smelling their dinner and Sherlock Holmes-ing where they ate at the food court, looking at attire and figuring out that they aren't very imaginative, etc.etc.etc. then the movie ends. I let them leave, put on my coat, check my wallet again and head out. I have to use the toilets... My buddy and I talk about the flm and the things we liked and loved and head up 3 stories to the toilets... (we were lost-ish) We get in the place is empty (it's 12:20 at night) AND SOME GUY WALKS UP AND STANDS NEXT TO ME TO URINATE!!! Empty bathroom... myself, my buddy and this guy... I think, "my buddy is driving me home, it all ends here, no more weird people getting close to me making me wonder what they are doing"... We leave the toilets, walk down the escalators three stories, walk to the revolving door, I say in my head, "NOPE, not even gonna get in with my buddy, I'm just getting my own revolving triangle piece... I let him go in and... AND... someone on a mobile phone walks into mine with me... don't know him... never actually saw him... He steps on my heel and apologizes, I say, "... not a problem..." making sure it sounds awkward and uncomfortable and we come out on the other side...
I get in the car and am now writing to you... Yeah, there are coincidences... there's fate, or god, or prophecy, whatever you beleive in, but this was just creepy... I have no issues with crowds, etc. it's when single incidents happen that throw me off... The two on the tram, yep, could've been theives, odds are they just decided randomly to see the same movie i decided to see and walked past me because i was in their path... The old man, maybe he wanted to talk... maybe he needed a friend... maybe he needed a 6'1 dude next to him to look like less of an old man if someone was hassling him... The mobile revolving door guy... odds are he thought I would go in with my friend and was planning on getting in after us... but i messed up his plan and he was in as awkward a place as i was... (though next time pony up boyo and help push the revolving door... lets get some Conan action going here, you and i, side by side pushing the long metal bar like barbarian slaves forced to make wheat for the princess of the people who destroyed our village... dunno, he was prolly just some random dude who made a mistake...
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or...
or were they secret FBI agents watching me?... hmmmm...