Stalker City.

I really hesitate to talk about this online, because I think it might open me up to more unwanted attention, but maybe some other people have some helpful advice... so here it goes...

I have a long history of stalkers. Starting back in 1994, there was a homeless man in Baltimore that would follow me around, sometimes waiting outside my building on campus. He would never talk to me, but he would follow me wherever I was going: grocery store, bagel store, Wawa, etc., and then he would follow me back to the dorms. One day he followed me almost a mile to a shopping center and into Woolworth's and I asked the manager of the store to call the police. That was the end of him following me.

Fast forward to Washington in 1999, when a bus driver became fixated on me in a weird way. Every time he saw me he would stop. If he was driving, he would stop his car, if he was driving the bus, he would stop the bus (even with passengers on it) to say hello. I didn't encourage him, but it kept escalating. Finally, I moved.

Now there is another homeless man who I think is schizophrenic that I think is becoming a problem. At first he would just follow me while I walked to lunch and try to chat. (Although he always starts with "I've seen you around." which makes me nervous that he's really watching me.)

Well in the last few weeks he's started sitting at the table just outside my office. Today he was there before I got to work and as I walked by him the President of the college happened to say hello, and he very excitedly said "Hi Kathryn!" after she did. So now he knows my name.

I told my boss about it. Went to run an errand and had her close the blinds. By the time I got back he was gone. It's got me nervous though. I like living in the city, but I worry about exactly this kind of thing - since the bus driver was the one that prompted my flight to the suburbs the last time.

Maybe this time it won't be a problem. Maybe he's harmless. Maybe I'm over-reacting. But that's alot of maybes.

Hey!!! I just realized that my last post was about me being a stalker to Chiwetel Ejiofor!! Funny. Maybe this is actually all some kind of karmic payback.