i might be an overly paranoid person, but i think when your spidey senses are going off you've got to listen. this evening, after I left 826 valencia (great session btw, i traded in the troublemakers for a kid who wants to write about pottermore), i walked to 18th street to wait for the every so untrustworthy 33. the bus stop was sort of creep.
there was a dude there talking about how the bus would only be there a few more minutes. he was about 5 feet away and we made idle chitchat (the kind you make when the bus says it's 2 minutes away and another 2 minutes pass but it still says 2 minutes). I turned to see if i could see the bus for about 3 seconds and when i turned back dude had creeped up to about 2 feet away. He asked my name, i lied and hoped 2 minutes would go by faster. he then asked a million things, said he moved here from texas 4 months ago, mentioned he was going to golden gate park (who, btw goes to golden gate park at 8:30 at night just to walk around?), and then asked what my status was. (yes status, like it's a facebook update or something.) i told him i was married and then thank god the bus arrived.
my new unwanted creepy pal joe (his name, which i thought was a lie, but couldn't judge since i was also lying) got on the bus before me. I sort of made sure it went that way. he walked to the back where everyone could hear the music coming out of his pocket (did i mention his pocket was playing shitty music, like he had some sort of computer speaker from 1995 jammed in there?), and i made sure i stayed in the front.
i kept getting the feeling that he was watching, but couldn't tell if i was just paranoid or not. but since the spidey senses were going off, and my particular stop is a little dark, i decided to get off at castro instead. the bus was at the red light about to pull into the stop, and i stood up to get off (along with about 5 other people). at this point my creepy pal walked past the back door (where everyone is sort of lined up to get off) and sits near the front. that weirded me out so i spied his picture just because. when the doors opened, i was last to get off bus and a bunch of people started to get on. I turned back to look and saw that creepy joe was trying to push his way out of the front door.
hello creepy joe. i don't care if you are new to town. the castro is NOT golden gate park. and your actions were really fucking weird. he was still on the bus working his way off when i bolted around the corner and darted into walgreens. i kept thinking he was waiting outside, so i sent out his photo to every social network i'm on, called up randall to find out when he was coming home and then chilled for about 30 minutes.
my purgatory:
i told randall i didn't need rescuing, but i wasn't walking home by myself. i wasn't so much scared as creeped out. i felt like if i walked home, i would've turned around every 3 seconds to see if he was there. i told randall i was fine, and said i'd wait down in the vibrant and heavily populated castro until he showed up. i wasn't sure where i was going to go or what i was going to do, but then i walked past blush where the sweetest live music was streaming out. people were laughing and clapping and having an all around great time and i decided that was where i needed to be. i got a glass of bubbles and a cheese and meat plate and chatted with the band. everyone there was so nice, it was exactly where i needed to be. and apparently my new friends are there every thursday night.
so thanks creepy freaking texas joe, i've got a new favorite place thanks to you.
my oasis:
