My lovely friend Emmie has a wonderful blog. She issued a call recently for friends to post their awkward first date experiences. The thought of awkward dates made me think of creepy encounters of many kinds. I certainly don't consider the following a first date, but it was so creepy (for me at least, I don't think he noticed) that I'll share.
When I was 17 (yes, remember I was just 17) I had just graduated high school and thought it would be cool to attend a singles congregation with my older friend in preparation for going down to the BYU that fall. She had to play the piano, so she left me on the bench to fend for myself. A creepy guy came up, introduced himself and sat down next to me. I got nervous. He asked how old I was and I told him "I AM SEVENTEEN!" and asked how old he was, he said 25 (remember that--as if a 25-year-old man should be hitting on a 17-year-old girl in the firstplace). The meeting began and he tried the share a hymnbook number where he tries to touch my hand under the hymnal. By the end of verse one I was holding on to the very corner with my fingertips. Then he attempts to hold my hand. I lean away from him. He takes this as a cue to try and rub my back. YIKES!!
I didn't date much in high school and had absolutely no experience with telling guys off, least of all in church. I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I felt like alternately throwing up and crying. After the sacrament, my friend came down and sat on the other side of me. During the first speaker I leaned over and told her this guy was creeping me out and I didn't want to be stuck talking to him after the meeting while she played the piano. She said "be nice". I said, loudly enough for him to hear "I'm going to the restroom" and added softly to her "I'll meet you in the car."
When she came out to the car she scolded me for not being nice--excuse me? I later discovered that this guy was the ward creep, 32, divorced with 2 kids. I WAS SEVENTEEN AND I TOLD HIM SO! Creepy creepy creepy.
Gee, I can't figure out why, since then I would get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of attending a singles ward. It is a miracle of the greatest sort that (10 years later) I managed to overcome this dread, attend a singles ward and meet my now-husband. I am still and forever scarred though. In the spirit of Em, I'd like to invite y'all to share your creepy encounters with me . . .
3 comments:
Um, I would have smacked your friend if I had been in your situation, and if she had told me, "Be nice!"
Too many women get into bad situations because they're so afraid of hurting someone's feelings. Um, I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be too concerned about a pedophile's feelings over my safety. I had to say reading this and some of the other bad date stories at Emmie's blog makes me sad for all the women (myself included) who were too afraid to stand up for themselves, and remained in unbearable situations.
What a creep.
When I was at BYU Hawaii, I had a roommate that was 17. One of the guys that "preyed" on her was 31. She was dumb of course, and flattered at the same time, so she accepted his advances. It made me so angry that he was taking advantage of her like that. Especially when she just became his taste of the week.
C'mon ... that story over the mailbox story? ;) I just found that for some reason in some old papers I was going through ...
On my first date the waitress dropped some of the food in my lap. I nearly died, although it wasn't obvious enough for anyone else to realize. That may have been better, though, so that if they noticed they didn't just think I was a clutz ...
The first time I went to a "single Adult DAnce" I met 35 year old ponytail guy who followed me around offering to teach me to dance, I left ASAP and didn't go to another dance till BYU
Post a Comment