Regular readers of this blog will know that people always ask me for directions and that crazy/eccentric people like to talk to me. I don’t know why, because I emphatically do nothing to encourage them or to appear sociable. The other day, as I was walking down the street minding my own business and listening to my moody music, an older gentleman barks at me, “Smile! You’ll look younger.” What the hell? Did I ask you? And then as I was walking back from the store recently this little blond kid sticks his head out the window of his SUV and taunts, “Nice backpack!” Again, what the hell? I mean, I could understand if I was wearing a “Hello Kitty” backpack or something, but it’s just a normal black backpack that I use to carry groceries in. Screw you, kid.
There’s also this diminutive Asian woman over at the 3rd Street Promenade who always accosts me. She comes up and says, “Can I ask you a question?” I could tell from the first moment I saw her, just from something about her body language I guess, that she wanted to recruit me for some stupid religious cult or something (Hare Krishnas, as it turns out), so I always just sort of smiled and said, “No thanks,” and walked on by. Well, I’m over at the Promenade a lot, and I know she recognizes me by now, and she’s becoming ever more aggressive about hounding me, even though I start waving her off and hurrying away as soon as she homes in on me. I finally lost it when she approached me twice within five minutes, and when she asked, “Can I ask you a question?” I said, “No. Leave me alone.” This has not deterred her. I think I’m actually going to have to start avoiding that stretch of the Promenade, which is a pain, since that’s where one of the movie theaters is, but I just can’t take any more of her.
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