Stranger Danger.

So this evening was pretty interesting. As I walked to the Alex Theatre from church (a mere 4 blocks), I was approached by a guy. Actually, it looked more like he was waiting for me to walk by. He looked to be about 23-24, dressed in stylish attire and he asked me where the Americana was located. Keep in mind that the street I was walking on was relatively dark and empty. Instant red flag.

"Um, a block that-a-way," I explained as I pointed in the right direction.

I kept walking and he joined me, much to my dismay. He explained that he was meeting up with a friend and proceeded to make small talk. I just shot him down with bleak responses.

"The Americana really put Glendale on the map, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"So, where are you headed?"
"The Alex Theatre."
"Oh. I'll walk with you, if you don't mind. You live around here?"
"I.. uh, don't mind. And yeah, I sorta live in the area."

On and on until it somehow got to our ages and ethnicity. He asked if there were any good Filipino restaurants nearby and I pointed him to Max's of Manila. He asked if I'd like to join him sometime. I very politely turned him down -- "stranger danger" was loudly echoing in my head.

And he asked, "So how do you feel about dating older guys?"
"Uh, not interested, sorry."
"You seem really cool and we've got that Asian thing going!" He was half white/half Taiwanese. But that's totally beside the point.
Then he kept going about how this was the norm and that this was how people usually met nowadays.

Uh, what? Come again? It's normal for people to meet on dark streets and start dating?! What happened to meeting through mutual friends? Or cute & innocent study dates because you happen to be in the same class at school? Is this just me being naive? Too oblivious? Does this stuff seriously happen? I don't think so. It's creepy and my guard was definitely up. And I clutched my pepper spray with an insane death grip throughout our walk. I thought it was weird. And to make things even weirder, this was the 2nd time this week this has happened. Except that one was a little more to my tastes, a random 2 hour conversation with someone at Borders while I was waiting for a friend to get off work.

Anyway. Directionally challenged boy seemed kind of interesting -- he told me he used to play in the Youth Orchestra here and that he still plays double bass in a band. But his advances were just so... direct. And is that really the best place to meet women? A dark street? Hmm, cause that's the hotspot nowadays, right? Right. That's a CSI episode waiting to happen, thank you very much. All I'm saying is that guys shouldn't be such creepers.

Whatever. I just really needed to get that off my chest. My feet hurt from all that walking. Damn sandals.