Months ago I was on the bus in the morning, cornered into the wall with a guy I now know to be a little off-balance. He had been mock-jacking off and mock-gesturing at me while I was pressed up against the window. I put a dignified stop to the whole thing and he walked off the bus shaking his head and laughing at me. Anyways, crisis averted and it's over now. Vote for me.

This week I saw the same guy on the bus on the way home. He didn't show any sign of recognizing me and I was loaded down with groceries. I hadn't bagged the basil properly so I made the back of the bus smell like fresh basil. This guy was opposite me and I saw him touching the hair of a woman sitting in front of him. He was very sneaky about it and she had no idea. I should have said something--but I wanted her to be able to still sit on the bus at the end of a long day and not think she's being pawed at. I glared at him instead. I made him know I was on to him. He stopped.

People who get off on someone else's discomfort are at the bottom of the Eros food chain. Once I was sitting with a group of friends--six of us in all--on a side street downtown. It was deserted except for a guy across the street from us who was lurking around a parking lot. We ignored him. Someone took a photo of the other five of us: one head-on, and one a shot of our reactions when she stepped aside to reveal the man ejaculating across the street. She hit click before she turned and saw him herself. I'm putting this photo up in another post because it's one of the funny and a perfect memory shot.

At the time we were two blocks from the big Police building at Bay and College. What I think about now is that I shouldn't have gotten upset and left because that was just gratifying this guy even more. I should have thrown something at him. Why the hell not? Was he going to go right into the Police station and say,

"Officer, I was just exposing myself to a group of young girls when one of them assaulted me!"

Awkward pause.
"Okay buddy. We'll get to the bottom of this if we have to work all night."