die, creepy bookstore stalker guy, die.
Feb. 26th, 2002 02:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbminxSo.
I woke up feeling not great today. Actually it's a wonder that I woke up at all! Not in the "deadminx" sense, more in the... I heard my alarm and it did not mentally connect with "get up" for me, as it usually does, it connected with "must stop shrill irritating noise" and that was as far as it went. I feel a little under-the-weather, and I was having strange dreams, and - I don't know, I suppose I don't have an excuse.
After lousing around the house for a while, my mother suggested that I come with her to Kinko's so that she could fax some documents (oh, that funeral? we're so paying for it. yay.) - and you know, Kinko's is rightnexttoTargetmypersonalmecca. So I got ready. Then it came out that she was faxing only to avoid making a phonecall (she has social anxiety). So with some prodding she made the call and we were left bewilderingly planless, and as a result decided to drive out to Borders so as to sit around, drink coffeeish things, and browse through books etc, perhaps even study.
I collected a stack of books - looking, for instance, in bookmaking books for information about fore-edge carving and painting, and instructions - and wandered over to the cafe area, where she was seated. When I went to look at magazines after setting my stuff at the table, this guy appeared at the end of the magazine aisle, and sort of... menaced me along. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt like he was overly interested in me. He was wearing a red t-shirt and very noisy nylon pants in black or navy and some kind of black windbreaker jacket. Late 30s(ish), longish hair, slight facial hair. Clean (didn't smell).
This would have passed as just a weird moment, except that every time I went to a new section of the bookstore, he appeared there a minute later and started walking down the aisle I was in. Looking at Serge Gainsbourg cds? he appears. How about books on style? You know it. Art? he's interested. Et. Fucking. Cetera. He also kept intentionally walking right next to our cafe table. And whenever my mom got up, he'd get up and follow her; whenever I got up, he'd get up and follow me. If we were both sitting down, he'd find a table to sit at nearby, and stare. He carried a book, but never once looked at it or any other book in the store.
Finally I got fed the fuck up and went over to the Psych section, where I proceeded to assemble a HUGE stack of books on depression and OCD; sure enough, he passed by and checked out what I was doing. I took the books back to the table; he had already returned to the area and taken his seat. I then endeavored to develop an impressive interest in clinical depression. (read something at the end of an unquiet mind that rang true, which is that most truly depressed people are just painfully boring and self-absorbed and tend to exhaust the patience/compassion of most people around them). he lurked over the table for a minute, then disappeared. It's my opinion that the Strategy For Ridding Oneself of Creepy Bookstore Stalker Guys had worked. (basically, it's to pick up a bunch of books that make you look like a serious headcase or at least a nightmare of insecurity and reliance on the teachings of Wayne Dyer and Dr Phil.)
After a while my mom got up and went to look at craft books, and guess where he was? Sitting in the art section. Just sitting back in a chair, not looking at anything. Guess what section the majority of my books were from? Yeah. She thinks he was waiting for me to take them back. I think he had shifted his attention to her. Whatever the case, we checked out in stages and were careful to leave the store when he wasn't around.
and honestly... the whole time... I wasn't nervous, or afraid, or after the first incident really intimidated... I was irritated as hell. Who ARE you? what do you want? where in any compendium of idiot lore did you pick up the idea that this constitutes ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR? I went with my first impulse, which was to seemingly ignore him. The other impulse was confrontation, but... it didn't seem like a good idea. You know, someone stares at you? Stare back. Someone follows you around the store? start following them. They give you a hard time? Be really fucking mean. etc.
Anyway. After that we drove a ways away and had dinner somewhere, which was very enjoyable. Then we drove home, in the fog, which was not so enjoyable as dinner had been.
& I am GLAD to be home.
I woke up feeling not great today. Actually it's a wonder that I woke up at all! Not in the "deadminx" sense, more in the... I heard my alarm and it did not mentally connect with "get up" for me, as it usually does, it connected with "must stop shrill irritating noise" and that was as far as it went. I feel a little under-the-weather, and I was having strange dreams, and - I don't know, I suppose I don't have an excuse.
After lousing around the house for a while, my mother suggested that I come with her to Kinko's so that she could fax some documents (oh, that funeral? we're so paying for it. yay.) - and you know, Kinko's is rightnexttoTargetmypersonalmecca. So I got ready. Then it came out that she was faxing only to avoid making a phonecall (she has social anxiety). So with some prodding she made the call and we were left bewilderingly planless, and as a result decided to drive out to Borders so as to sit around, drink coffeeish things, and browse through books etc, perhaps even study.
I collected a stack of books - looking, for instance, in bookmaking books for information about fore-edge carving and painting, and instructions - and wandered over to the cafe area, where she was seated. When I went to look at magazines after setting my stuff at the table, this guy appeared at the end of the magazine aisle, and sort of... menaced me along. I don't know how to describe it, but I felt like he was overly interested in me. He was wearing a red t-shirt and very noisy nylon pants in black or navy and some kind of black windbreaker jacket. Late 30s(ish), longish hair, slight facial hair. Clean (didn't smell).
This would have passed as just a weird moment, except that every time I went to a new section of the bookstore, he appeared there a minute later and started walking down the aisle I was in. Looking at Serge Gainsbourg cds? he appears. How about books on style? You know it. Art? he's interested. Et. Fucking. Cetera. He also kept intentionally walking right next to our cafe table. And whenever my mom got up, he'd get up and follow her; whenever I got up, he'd get up and follow me. If we were both sitting down, he'd find a table to sit at nearby, and stare. He carried a book, but never once looked at it or any other book in the store.
Finally I got fed the fuck up and went over to the Psych section, where I proceeded to assemble a HUGE stack of books on depression and OCD; sure enough, he passed by and checked out what I was doing. I took the books back to the table; he had already returned to the area and taken his seat. I then endeavored to develop an impressive interest in clinical depression. (read something at the end of an unquiet mind that rang true, which is that most truly depressed people are just painfully boring and self-absorbed and tend to exhaust the patience/compassion of most people around them). he lurked over the table for a minute, then disappeared. It's my opinion that the Strategy For Ridding Oneself of Creepy Bookstore Stalker Guys had worked. (basically, it's to pick up a bunch of books that make you look like a serious headcase or at least a nightmare of insecurity and reliance on the teachings of Wayne Dyer and Dr Phil.)
After a while my mom got up and went to look at craft books, and guess where he was? Sitting in the art section. Just sitting back in a chair, not looking at anything. Guess what section the majority of my books were from? Yeah. She thinks he was waiting for me to take them back. I think he had shifted his attention to her. Whatever the case, we checked out in stages and were careful to leave the store when he wasn't around.
and honestly... the whole time... I wasn't nervous, or afraid, or after the first incident really intimidated... I was irritated as hell. Who ARE you? what do you want? where in any compendium of idiot lore did you pick up the idea that this constitutes ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR? I went with my first impulse, which was to seemingly ignore him. The other impulse was confrontation, but... it didn't seem like a good idea. You know, someone stares at you? Stare back. Someone follows you around the store? start following them. They give you a hard time? Be really fucking mean. etc.
Anyway. After that we drove a ways away and had dinner somewhere, which was very enjoyable. Then we drove home, in the fog, which was not so enjoyable as dinner had been.
& I am GLAD to be home.
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no subject
Date: 2002-02-26 05:49 am (UTC)being a B&N wage slave I am all too familiar with the stalker phenomena. I tell all the new girl employees: "You're not a true book girl till you've had your first stalker." KIDDING. Seriously though, there are more creepy, lonely, stalker guys out there than people realize. The ones I've encountered in the store aren't really evil perverts or anything, they just have no personal/social skills and occasionally are fuzzy on the concept of 'personal space'.
If it happens again, grab a manager and let them do the confrontational stuff, even though they may not want to, but that's what they're there for. Or in some cases, the manager will call a cop if the stalker-guy isn't being cooperative, it's happened in my store before. :)
no subject
Date: 2002-02-26 08:28 am (UTC)also, if you're in a store like that and things come to confrontation, cd cases make for good shuriken.
no subject
Date: 2002-02-26 03:23 pm (UTC)we also had a few instances where the management called the police, but I was never there for them... they always seemed to happen on my days off.
this guy, I didn't know what to do about him. He was slightly less menacing than the requirement for complaint, but still very very annoying. If I ever see him again I'm definitely going to talk to the staff about him. We go to this store a lot, so we're "known" there.