le pacte des loups
friday, february 1, 2002
i spent the day with angela. it was an unusual experience, because it was just the two of us, sans garrett, and we went and saw a grown-up movie in the movie theater. no, you don't understand: i've known angela for about three years, and we've never been to the movie theater by ourselves before, not once. so, special day. :)
the movie of choice was brotherhood of wolves (but because i'm taking french, i take every opportunity to practice, so i'm trying to think of it as le pacte des loups--because it's fun to say "loo!" and mean wolf).. and did i love? yes. yes, i loved.
angela says she wasn't sucked in immediately but, well, i was. it's not perfect, by all means--i got frustrated at how thin the plot would get, and how some aspects seemed dragged out forever.. and how characters would appear and establish themselves, and then their thread would be dropped for half an hour only to suddenly re-appear..
that said, i really loved the handful of characters, and highly approved of the actors portraying them. and the fight scenes. oh, the fight scenes. oh, so exhilarating! it felt like such a ride, despite definite kinks here and there. i gasped, and bit my lip, and winced, and there you go. i had fun. and i will be seeing it. again, and again, and, y'know, again...
escapism suits me just fine, right now. creep-o-meter stands at about 8, right now. i had to walk into the gas station near my dorm last night, to buy a few things. as always, the creepy owner was there, and as always, he'd follow me with his squinty eyes as i slink around behind shelves, trying to get what i meant to buy while being sufficiently far enough out of hearing distance.
"hey, baby, when are you going to cook me some swedish dinner, eh? you're so sweet."
(shudder) before i reached angela this morning, i stopped by a dollar store, where i was targeted by a baby-faced teenage boy who proceeded to follow me around the store, and subsequently out of it and across the parking lot, mostly silently walking and staring at me with a little smile that he must have thought laid-back, and winning.
"do you like dance? dinner? you are from chapel hill? chapel hill is pretty. you pretty too. i'm from mexico. what high school do you go to?"
great. i know i often look a bit younger than 24, but there it was--an authentic teenager mistaking me for the same. heh. as he stalked next to me, i struggled to politely hint that he should drop the pursuit as i had some elusive appointment to get to, and that i had a boyfriend, thank you, we're very happy, sure.
eventually, i stopped, and said, as calmly as i could: "i prefer to walk alone, please. could you let me walk alone? thank you."
and he actually listened. phew. the rest of the day went smoothly, and enjoyably, in angela's company. gush, gush.
until time came to part, and an odd man interrupted our very exclusive conversation at the bus stop by requesting to look at the buttons on my purse strap. um, okay. i think he introduced himself as john? anyway. harmless enough, he got off the bus very early on, so i took a sigh of relief.
until i got to downtown raleigh to wait 45 minutes for the bus to take me home to durham. for some reason, a middle-aged man decided to stalk me around, trying to engage in a conversation made very difficult due to his sparse grasp of english.
by then, my patience was wearing thin, and i simply refused to be forced into yet another ridiculous encounter. thank you, neil, for neverwhere, and angela for the book gift certificate that allowed me to buy a pocket book copy. lady door and richard mayhew saved me, at least a little.
and the bus came, and i carefully selected a seat behind an already occupied seat, and felt good about it to boot. until that person decided to get off the bus about 20 seconds before we left the station, and just like that, my attentive and entirely unwanted suitor scooped in.
but he didn't just sit down in the seat directly in front of me. noooo. he turned his body sideways, and then spent the ENTIRE HOUR to durham staring at me, relentlessly. i don't mean zoned out looking in my direction. i mean head turned so that he faced me about a foot away, never looking away.
it appeared his strategy was to take every time i accidentaly looked his way as an excuse to say something. so i pretended to sleep. i pretended to read (every time i got to the very top lines, on the right side of the book, i had to make sure not to focus even a quarter inch too high, because then i'd accidentally meet his eyes, staaaaring.). and he stared.
when i made the mistake of resting my foot on the opposite knee, he grinned, and cocked his head to REST HIS FACE ON MY BOOT. wtf?!? i said something to the effect of: "heh.." and quickly put my foot down. i mean, wtf??
anyway. finally, i made it to my school. i opted not to get out where my dorm is, but rather proceeded to the more anonymous office building. as i prepared to get off, the man leaned to me and whispered something, and then did a little head-jerk motion. i was glad not to hear what he was suggesting, but it did freak me into thinking he was about to get off at my stop and continue stalking. luckily, he didn't.
i stood still a long while, waiting for the bus to pass me so that i could make sure that he was still on the bus (i didn't want to turn around and find him standing behind me). and he was. and i was exhausted. and that was that.
i tried telling danny at the office about it, but i hadn't even started telling of the high school boy before danny made "awwww" noises to indicate that apparently i should have been flattered, instead of creeped out. his attention span ran out before i made it to the second encounter. sigh. anyhow.
it just put such a heavy damper on my otherwise wonderful day. that hour on the bus exhausted me the way a great, physical endurance would have. at this point, i really don't care. i don't.
i mean, WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with people?! anyway, enough.. just being miserable, offended, and tired. cin cin. �� 11:59 p.m.
