Idiots in the city

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-01-2005
Idiots in the city
9
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 4:05pm

Sometimes I hate living in the city - and Denver's not even the "big city." It's pretty small and safe here. After what just happened, I'm not sure if I could handle someplace like Chicago or New York.

I just got verbally attacked on the street. I was walking down our pedestrian mall over lunch and I passed this guy. (I walk fast). Well, apparently this annoyed him and he sped up next to me. He kept pace with me for a few blocks and I could feel him looking at me.

It freaked me out a little, so I ducked into a store. He followed me into the store, and proceeded to follow me, saying, "Denver a*****e, stupid Denver a**.... You are a f'in dog. My girlfriend is 100 times prettier than you."

Yes, I was verbally attacked because I passed someone, WALKING down the street. I didn't bump the man or anything.

Well, now I'm embarrassed that it reduced me to tears. I left the vicinity immediately, and thankfully he stopped following me. It just made me feel unsafe in broad daylight in a city I know very well.

Can I go back to bed now? Sheesh.

AJ, enjoying life with C.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2004
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 5:05pm

Yep - I have had that happen more than once in Chicago. The best was when a man sat across from me on the subway pleasuring himself and staring at me. Then he followed me off of the train so I had to call one of my few friends with a car to pick me up so we could lose him and he couldn't follow me home.

Ah, the city. But I still wouldn't trade it.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-18-2006
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 5:20pm

I'm sorry that happened to you. I feel like being the man here and coming over and kicking some butt. Just a few obvious problems. It is a long drive, I have no idea what guy I should hit, AND I'm not actually a big fan of attacking strangers. Tell ya what... Get that guy's address and I will send him a strongly-worded letter. That will show him.

If it helps any, the antelope from yesterday were rude, too. They pooped all over the prairie. They acted like they live here or something. I even saw one of them giving me the evil eye. Just where do they get the nerve??? Damn rural life.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-01-2005
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 5:40pm

Also in Chicago and the crazies come out in force. Within the first 2 weeks of me living here, I had a homeless lady yell at the top of her lungs B***** at me just before I went down the steps to the red line. The entire block heard her! And then, my neighbor across the way wrote me a creepy letter saying he thinks I'm beautiful and graceful (yeah right) was "pleasuring himself" while watching me. Yay perverts!!

Sigh...Yep...I don't like Chicago sometimes. But I have to tough it out.

Rubyshoes

Photobucket


iVillage Member
Registered: 11-01-2005
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 6:12pm

See, we have our share of homeless people who are mentally ill, and I'm totally used to them. They totally don't phase me anymore. There's one guy who runs around downtown with his guitar yelling at the top of his lungs (I mean yelling - buildings shake when he walks by) that we're all sinners and going to hell. He'll pick a different religious denomination to pick on and yell "D**n Mormons, d**n Protestants... Blood on your hands."

Another guy followed me for a block a few weeks ago yelling directly in my face that I should pay attention to him, and rambling nonsense. I didn't flinch.

The thing that caught me off guard with this guy is that he looked like any other businessperson walking down the street - so my guard was down. I know, don't judge a book by its cover - but this one got to me. The way he was so malicious with his words really got to me, too. Seemed like one of those psycho killers whose neighbors all say later "but he seemed like such a nice, normal guy."

If I had someone "pleasure himself" on the train in front of me, I'm pretty sure that's when I'd move. :) Or the neighbor - even worse!

ORSTG -- I'll take the pooping antelope any day. ANY DAY.

AJ, enjoying life with C.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2005
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 8:04pm

My gosh, I am so sorry you had to deal with that. I have had my day ruined by these people a couple of times. Once, a man followed me around for 20 minutes yelling at the top of his lungs "Teresa is a fat bitch and has The Clap." My name is not Teresa and I don't have The Clap. Yikes!

By the way, I think the guy with the guitar is the same guy that asks me out every week. Nothing like a stinky, homeless, guitar-playing, anti-christ to make you feel good.

Ahhh, the big city!

Going to dream of antelope poop now...

Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Wed, 02-22-2006 - 10:10pm

Okay, that guy was really off.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2004
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 9:15am
You are a true Chicagoan, Ruby, because you have met Crazy Mary near the red line. She is so weird. She only curses at women - she loves men. I once saw her raise her skirts and take a d*mp right on the sidewalk at the corner of Dearborn and Jackson in the middle of the lunch rush. She once told me that I was a whore for wearing sandles without socks. Another time, she got on the brown line and it was rush hour so the train was packed like a Tokyo subway. She pushed the button to "talk to and hear operator" and he asked her what was going on and she literally screeched "There's a man and woman f*****g on the train!" The after work crowd just lost it and people were laughing so hard that they had to hold on to one another to keep from falling down.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2005
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 10:46am
Sometimes the things that frighten me about big cities are also the reasons I love them.
The "crazies" bring us all closer together.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-01-2005
Thu, 02-23-2006 - 10:57am

If it's the tall guy with long dark hair, a mustache and beard - it's the same guy. I'm surprised he ever talks to just one person at a time. Does he scream while he's
asking you out?

Eww. :)

AJ, enjoying life with C.