Is THAT what this is?
This is stalking?
Shit.
I once made friends with a guy at a burner event. He was short, balding, in great shape, and gave amazing foot massages. His name was Shimmer.
He tried to hit on me, but after the cuddle puddle, I had the unusual faculty to tell him he was cool, but I was going to hang out with this other guy over there.
The one that danced with lightning.
Burners! Such a crazy scene.
I had a thing for the tall guy in chain mail in the middle of that picture.
His burner name was Parsec. He was also fascinatingly into martial arts philosophy, psychedelics, and polyamory.
Parsec and I actually ended up dating for about 9 months while I waited for the guy I REALLY wanted to be with to figure out what a catch I was, but I digress.
I knew what I wanted and went with it. It was very empowering.
Later, after the burn, Shimmer wanted to get together and hang out.
Since I was boldly exploring my freedoms at this stage of my life, I figured why the heck not.
What I really wanted was another amazing foot massage.
I think this led to some confusion on Shimmer’s part. Why foot massages and sexuality have to be connected is beyond my ken, btw.
He started telling people we were an item, and I had no idea.
If that was stalking, then this article is my first clue. Hindsight. Damn.
I just knew the whole situation was really awkward af.
I ended up emailing Shimmer too, quite similarly to your story. I just wanted to communicate.
Surprise! Writing monologues is my idea of communicating. 🤪
The lengthy emotional rants that came back at me were very unexpected, and very unsettling. I didn’t know what to do.
After the fact, I found out that Shimmer was intersex. He was probably also not super mentally stable.
I just felt bad about the whole thing.
No dead cats in the mail however. Maybe I’m still learning. Maybe I’m just lucky.
Wow.
