I came home the other night kind of late, and I was walking up the hill to my street when a man stopped his car and asked me, "Do you want a ride?" I said, "No," and he drove away.
It was so...odd. I mean, as a woman, you get accustomed to being propositioned once in a while by strange men. (Well, not exactly accustomed, but it becomes less noteworthy and unsettling.) Usually, though, the guy is drunk or otherwise boisterous and it's more of a display than a serious offer. Like a pigeon strutting around and puffing up its feathers. But this was so straightforward: just a simple question, a simple answer, and an acknowledgment of that answer.
Which makes it more unsettling than if he had yelled, I don't know, "Hey baby! You look sweet! Come and take a ride with me!" or something like that. This man was completely serious and businesslike. It thoroughly creeped me out.
On a not really related note, I've started getting bizarre messages on Friendster from random men. The first was from "James" who says:
Hi Baby, My name is James and am a model.I think I like what i see in this picture of urs.I wud really love to know u more.
Um, yeah. Love the sweater.
Today, I got one from "frederick," who is from Nigeria:
My name is frederick. I am a computer engineer and i am single and searching. My hobbies are palying football, reading and spending time with family. I have gone through your profile and i found you to be very interestine, that is why i decided to contact you. Actually i am in search of a good relationship that will lead to marriage cause i am ready to settle down and start a family of my own.
In case you want to paly some football with him, he gave me his email and phone number, so just let me know and I'll totally forward it to you.
I'm guessing this is the newest wave of spam innovation, and I don't like it. Not one bit.
Posted by thevieve at August 7, 2005 12:40 PM