Friday, January 20, 2012

Crazy-razzi

A good friend of mine recently had a baby, and we just visited them in the hospital.

After a lovely visit, and being high on the new-baby-smell, I was outside, in front of the hospital waiting for my husband to finish talking to my friend's husband. I went out to answer my phone, and was having a conversation with a friend and minding my own business.
When all of a sudden, I see this face walking towards me, very rapidly I might add, with a huge grin on it. This girl looked like she had one too many coffees (probably how I look after a cup of coffee and a good workout, LOL) and she came right up to me, not caring that I was on my phone and she might be interrupting my conversation. (red flag #1).

She starts rambling something at me, but I was in mid-conversation with my friend on the phone, so I didn't understand her at first. I politely told my friend to hang on a second, and then say hello to cooky lady staring at me like I'm Justin Beiber or something.

She asks me in a high pitch voice and huge smile, 'Where are you frooooom?' I think to myself:  'Ohhhh here we goooooo'. (red flag #2)
I always want to mess with people, and usually have witty answers in my head, but I never get the guts to pull it off.
So, I just went with the usual. 'I'm American, blah blah.'
Cooky lady: 'Oh my GOSH. REALLY?  I am from Turkey! I am a Muslim too!'
Me: A temporary sigh of relief. Great, she just wants to say salaam alaikum and carry on! {notice the word temporary in 'sigh of relief'}


So, I say, oh cool, as salaamu alaikum. She cuts me off mid-sentence and asks me if I am 'really American' and asks me if she can take my picture because she's 'never seen an American dress like me'. (red, huge flag #3)

Let me remind you, I am outside of a HUGE hospital in downtown Orlando, there are probably hundreds of people ALONE in the lobby that are coming and going out of the door behind me. The group of 5 or 6 valet guys were a few feet away, and were listening to every word.

I very politely told her 'no, I'm so sorry, but I really don't feel comfortable with that'.

Right??? Was that rude?? Would any of you feel comfortable having a complete stranger take your picture? I realize that I was covered and you wouldn't even be able to tell it was me, but still. It's just creepy. Especially in front of all these people!!!

So, now there are even more gawkers and I'm starting to feel claustrophobic because this woman actually has her phone 2 feet away from my face, probably taking my picture anyway, as I am politely asking her not to. (a zillion red flags going off)

She goes on to argue and plead with me by saying the picture is for her mom 'cuz she covers too'. I continue to say no, and even go as far to put my hand up because I see her messing with her phone (probably trying to get a good shot) and holding it in my face!

I said no, one last time, and even apologized, and then she finally walked away..

You know, it's not knowing that she has a picture of me that bothers me. It's that she didn't listen to a word I said and did what she wanted to do anyway. I'm just glad my boys weren't with me, because if she had taken a photo with them in it, I probably would have taken her phone out of her hands. LOL

The other thing that bothers me, is that she is a MUSLIM! From a predominately MUSLIM COUNTRY! It's not like she's from some remote place in Alaska who has never seen a woman covering her body. I know Turkey isn't full of niqab-wearing women, but really? Can't her mom just go google 'american wearing niqab'?? I'm sure she could find a much better picture there!

Maybe I overreacted and should have just let her take her measly little photo. I don't know. Maybe I would have if it were someone else, and maybe I was just turned off by her attitude of not caring if she was invading my privacy or not.

Ugh....I was so annoyed. My friend on the phone said that I should have told her that I don't do photos, but autographs are no problem. LOL, maybe I'll do that next time.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Um... that's just creepy. And who knows if she was even telling you the truth in the first place.

...And I think people act weird around me in public because I'm usually in my comfy "hippie" clothes. Sheesh!

Nicole said...

True, Alicia!

Also, I looooove seeing people in 'hippie' clothes, because I know they aren't going to judge me! haha!

RJ said...

Wow. Because really, you aren't a person with a life of your own, Nicole, you're a circus attraction. Didn't you know? ;-)

Some people! sheesh!

Nicole said...

LOL, RJ I guess I forgot! :)