Monday, November 5, 2007

Flowers and Creepy Men

In case you didn't know, I love love LOVE taking pictures of flowers. The park near our apartment has a rose garden and one day last week I took some time to meander around and take some pictures:









Those are just a few of my favorites. And since I can only figure out how to put horizontal pictures on here, I left out all the vertical shots. I took about 150 pictures, so obviously I can't post them all on here...but I hope you like the ones I did post. =) I ordered prints of some to decorate our apartment - right now there are only the pictures that our previous owners left, and they're uh...not quite our style.

That same day at the park I sat down on a bench to spend some time in the Word, and just as I was getting situated a man walked up to me and asked if I spoke English. The way he approached me was just weird - it was like he was thinking "I've got bad intentions - let's see if I can get this girl to fall for one of my tricks." The abridged conversation went something like this:

Him: Do you speak English?

Me: Yes.

Oh good, I thought so. Hi, my name is ___ and I thought maybe you were European, because you look European, and I just want somebody to speak English with because there aren't many people here who speak English.

[I'm thinking, "What?? Do you realize that what you just said makes no sense?]

Oh, I understand, but right now I'm waiting for a friend and I'd like to read.

When can I meet you again?

You can't.

Do you come here often?

Occasionally.

When can I meet you? Do you come to this spot?

I'd rather not. I don't like to talk to men I don't know.

Well if you talk to me then you'll know me and it will be okay.

No, I don't think so. I'd like to read now.

Okay. When can I meet you again? Will you be here again?

And so on and so on and so on...I had to say, "it was nice to meet you but I'm going to read now" at least 4 times before he left.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?? Apparently I'm just a magnet for strange, creepy guys.

Case study number 1:
Freshman year of high school I'm walking home on the first day of school. Creepy guy in front of me turns around, sees me and waits for me to catch up to him, then starts talking to me and walking with me. He says maybe I can come over to his house sometime, do you have a boyfriend? Will you go out with me? I tell him my dad won't let me date until I'm 16, and he said, "that's what my last girlfriend said but her dad made an exception for me." I said, "my dad won't."


Case study number 2:
I'm shopping at Target and pass this guy in the isle. He smiles, I smile back, because that's what I do. He meets me at the end of the isle and says something like, "excuse me, but I'd like to talk to you..." SERIOUSLY?? Next thing I know he's telling me how he's new to the country and he doesn't have a girlfriend and asking for my phone number. I told him I don't give my number to guys I just met.


Case study number 3:
I'm in Kenya, talking to a friend, the milk guy, to be exact. His friend comes up, talks to me for 5 minutes, and then asks me to MARRY HIM!! I told him he wasn't the kind of guy I was looking for. Do I have "VISA" stamped on my forehead or something?


I could go on, because there are several more of these too ridiculous to be true stories, but I won't. No normal God-fearing guy has ever expressed any interest in me, yet I seem to be a magnet for strange, mostly foreign men. I suppose I just need to stop smiling, stop saying hi, stop acknowledging the opposite sex in general. But then I'll scare away all of the normal, God-fearing guys! What's a girl to do??

I'm sure Tim Holm would have the answer, but I don't think he reads my blog. Tim, do you read my blog?? Any other guys? They're probably all reading about Stephen Colbert right now. ¡Que triste!

ALSO if you're still reading, I always put two spaces between sentences, because that's what I learned in school when we were doing PAWS party and learning how to type more than just asdf jkl; frfrfr jujuju and so on. But then when I make my post, the extra space just disappears! I've even gone back and added them between each and every sentence, but the second I post *POOF* they're gone!

Punctuation is important, and I don't appreciate blogspot stealing my spaces.

9 comments:

Julie said...

I love you! I think European guys are just more forward. The problem with Christian guys is that they don't date. It's either marriage track or nothing. And I think you stand out in Spain as a hot Brunette with adorable freckles and such. That's the problem. You're too hot and alluring for forward European men. I'm proud of you for being direct with this creepy buy about not meeting him again. What a goober!

The Roberts' said...

haha! laura you're so hot, you can't help that these guys notice you! i think you should have someone follow you around with a camcorder so we can all enjoy moments like these. :-)

Joshua said...

Great flower pictures... keep putting them up!

Don't know what's up with the creepy guys, but good job shooting them down.

As for the double space between sentences, that is a holdover from the days of typewriters. Periods and commas and whatnot didn't make as big of a smack on the paper as they were supposed to, so the practice of double spacing came in to show breaks between sentences. In the days of computers, double spacing is not only archaic, it is problematic, as it creates unsightly white areas in the middle of rather small columns of text. For example, notice how little of your screen (horizontally) is covered with the text of this post. If I had double spaces, my comment would be even longer (vertically) and harder to read.

That's my guess.

Unknown said...

i love you and i love your blog, and i also put two spaces between my sentences.

also, there is a creepy guy here--he even creeps Dan out--who keeps calling Ross and asking him for my number.

kristin said...

I know exactly what you mean about the spaces, I was a little perturbed that blogger took my very intentional spaces away as well!

Lissy said...

Aisle is spelt with an 'a', Bruner! I forgive you though. I also put two spaces between sentences, but I recently learned why we don't do that anymore! The golden rule back when people used typewriters was to put two spaces between sentences to ensure the sentences didn't run together. Now that we have proportinally spaced fonts, the two spaces are irrevalent. An 'M' takes up as more space than an 'I' so now we don't have to worry about two sentences visually running together. The characters in a word or sentance fit together better now that the letters don't all use the same amount of space. The proper practice now is to only use one space. I still use two though. It's a habit I just can't break!

Anonymous said...

I was at Sweet Eugene's one day meeting a couple of friends when a guy who was new to the country asked if I would speak English with him. I was polite and talked to him for a minute or two until my friends came, but then he wouldn't let up. He wanted me to make plans to meet with him regularly to speak English. I told him I would find him someone who he could be a conversation partner with, but he wouldn't let up. So then he facebooked me and started sending my messages. He kep trying to get me to meet with him to speak English and I just kept referring him back to a group who sets up conversation partners. I think he finally got the hint, but he sure creeped me out. I'll bet you met him once or twice seeing as you're the Queen of Sweet Eugene's.

Jen said...

I totally agree w/ you about the creepy men!! Maybe it's b/c we stick out above the crowd ;o) I've had my share of creepy guys, let alone the ones you meet on a regular day but try working in an ER or in a mental health facility, I've had more than a healthy dose of wedding proposals! But we are worth way more than creepy men!

Chris said...

LAURA!

We can't wait to see you guys again in January! It's good to hear how things are going. Just a quick word on the spacing. If you want a second space you have to add &nbsp. in the html code one space is read but never more than one unless you specify with this command. so if i wanted two spaces between my given and surname it would look like this when i typed it into the blog:
chris &nbsp lynch

Keep pressing on.