Have you ever......??

Have you ever been in a situation where you were at a loss for words but thought of the most perfect response after it was far-too-late? That's what happened to me today. For this to all make sense I need to rewind a little to 3 years ago.

I lived in a townhouse and was not too far from work. The total walking time was about 20min one way. I had to walk on this overpass over the Queensway and from there I was about 5min away. Well, as my older friends know, I have this magnet that attracts the weirdest people. They all seem to want to talk to me. I had one lady tell me Jesus loves me and that my Mother is truly blessed (just out of the blue she stopped me and told me so). Then, right when SARS was a hot issue I had this one guy start to follow me and yell some girls name. I had turned around because he was running towards me. He stopped dead in his tracks and realised I wasn't the right girl. He asked me a bunch of questions, which I didn't not answer truthfully and would not leave me alone. He started telling me he thought i was beautiful and blah blah blah and took my hand and kissed it! I didn't have time to react. He said something like "Your boyfriend is a very lucky man" and I responded "yeah, I keep telling him that". He laughed and stopped pestering me.

Now, today I decided to stop in at Farm Boy. I noticed this guy keep switching isles as I was moving around. We ended up at the lettuce bin. I looked at the price and grabbed one. He looked up and here's what happened.

-He said: "they're pretty cheap today eh?".
-"Uh...yeah I guess so"
-I think I know you from somewhere....
-I don't think so. You're probably mistaken me for someone else. I get that often..
-Well, I'm sure I know you. What's your name?
Okay...so I was stupid and wasn't thinking and gave him my first name.
-Oh..the name doesn't sound familiar but you have a look that you're a really nice person. Where do you live? (I avoided it and told him I lived in the opposite side of town) Where do you work? (again, I avoided it an office in Ottawa...which could mean anywhere)
_"Sorry, I dont recognise you and I remember faces. I really have to get going"
(Now I'm thinking, fuck...how do I get out of this? How can I escape this crazy man? And then it dawns on me. It's the crazy guy from the overpass. I'm sure of it. That's where he knows me from AND he's using the same line "i think i know you from somewhere". Think of something and think of something QUICK!!)

So, then he says it's really hard to find nice people in a big City and that he's glad he ran into me today. Yeah. ran into me my arse....he watched me walk around. Creep. Then he starts to say "well I'm telling you that you seem very nice and I was wondering if, um, maybe, sometime I could maybe take you out to dinner or we can do something?". Shit, fuck, damn, what do I say?!?! So I said as straight faced as possible "I really don't think it's a good idea". He asked why and I said "well I have a boyfriend...". He left me alone after that and did so pretty quickly.

So I was telling Chrissy about my little episode and telling her I was panicking because he was creeping me out and I didn't want to just turn around and walk away. As brilliant as Chrissy is she said "next time when he says "I recognise you from somewhere.." just say "Oh it must be through my boyfriend so-and-so". Why didn't I think of that?!?! I could have ended the conversation WAYYYY before he got too creepy.

Lesson learned: when you get the heeby jeebies from someone follow your gut.

What a way to start 2006. Get asked out on a date from a total strange creepy guy. Woohoo!!