Stalking is weird. The word 'stalker' brings to the mind images of a guy in the bushes with binoculars, someone who sends letters to their beloved made up from cut up magazines, someone who collects creepy dolls and sends them as presents... It is not a pleasant image and stalking is not something to joke about... usually. In this story, I was not the stalked. That's right. I was the stalker. Here we go...
Remember the "winky mcgunslinger" story? In that story, I accidently winked and shot a finger guy at an attractive guy in my class. Well, enter that attractive guy again and another awkward interaction with him [can you call it an interaction when you are stalking and don't actually talk to them?]
There I am, graduate student, about mid-way through the semester. I'm learning the ropes of school, balancing homework, real work, and fun times, generally getting a good grip on things. However, I was not getting to know people in my class. If you know me, you know it takes me a while to warm up to people. I'm pretty ok being that person in class who sits in the back-ish, doesn't talk to their classmates, at least for a while. Give me a month or two before I start being social. This story occurs in the I'm-not-talking-to-anyone period of grad school.
So, it's mid-way through the semester and I'm walking to my friday night class. As I walked across the lawns of UL, I remembered suddenly that our class was moved to a different building. Oh shoot, I forgot to right down the building and room number! Now, UL is not a small campus, I couldn't just waltz around until I found my classmates. I also couldn't hop on-line using a fancy cell phone to find out where class was to be held because I don't have internet on my phone [I know, the mind reels that there could be someone out there over the age of 12 and under the age of 60 that doesn't have internet on their phone. But if I did have the ability to jump on-line, there wouldn't be a story... so I continue]
I stood, outside my usual building, pondering my next move. I debated just going home. I had given it the old college try, or in my case the grad school try, but there was no point walking around, peeking into rooms to see if I recognized anyone. And then, I saw him.
Like a beacon from heaven, I saw a guy from my class, walking across campus. Bingo! I could just ask him where class was. That's what a normal person would do. I, instead, debated the consequences of actually talking to this guy. Keep in mind, I hadn't really spoken to anyone in class. I was still hoping they had forgotten my first day of class in which I ran in sweaty and said something about bacon being my favorite food. Since that day, I had decided to lay low. And this particular day, I decided to continue that pattern.
So, I stalked him. I stayed about 50 feet behind him at all times, just walking, trying to be casual. Just casually stalking. At one point, he stopped to talk to someone on campus. Which meant I had to stop 50 feet behind him and stand in the middle of campus on a random sidewalk. I just stood their looking at the trees, checking my internet-less cell phone, looking through my book bag. Finally, he continued walking toward class. I called my friend Betsy to inform her of my new stalking habit. She told me this was silly and I should just ask him where class was... yeah, I couldn't do that.
In the end, I made it to class. Again, I sat in the back-ish and didn't talk to anyone. But who needs to? I was able to get to class successfully without making social interactions. So, I win? no probably not...
