A scare at the drive thru.

So I had an interesting, frightening experience yesterday. I was up to the drive-thru of an awful fast food restaurant to satisfy a craving. As I pulled up to the window, I was just getting off the phone so I slowly pulled up to the menu. I had noticed a stumbling woman carrying newspaper as I drove up. But it was only after I hung up that I realized that the woman was coming towards my car. I immediately hit my power lock and locking all the doors. She had just gotten to the passenger side door and was yanking on the door handle saying something that I could not decipher. I thought shooing her off and then ignoring her would work. So, I rolled down my driver's side window and ordered my food. Apparently, the woman was considerably inebriated because I had finished ordering by the time she realized that my driver's side window was down. She released the passenger side handle and walked around the front of my car. To her dismay, I'm sure, I had my window rolled up by the time she stumbled over to the driver's side of the car. She started talking to me and slapping the window again. This time I understood her. She wanted a ride. A ride just around the corner supposedly. I'm not too sure that she knew just exactly which corner she was at in the first place. That particular area of town is known to have a decent amount of prostitutes and although she didn't really look like prostitute material, I didn't want to take my chances. I can just see myself getting collared for solicitation.

So she's talking loudly at my window and I'm trying to tell her to move away and she's not getting it. So I slowly start to drive off. She tried to hold on to the car which knocked her off balance and made her drop the newspaper she was carrying. Immediately, she dropped to the ground to pick them up. By this time, I'm seeing her in my rearview mirror. Thankful that she did not drop to the ground like that before I passed her. When I pulled around to the window, I told the employee that there was a drunk woman hanging out by the drive thru and that it might be better for business to not have her there. The employee hollered back at a male employee to go out and convince her to move on elsewhere.

The whole experience really got to me though. I felt a little guilty that I didn't help her out but then I rationalized that it might have been stupid to do anything other than what I did. She could have been armed. She could have been faking. I doubt that it was fake at all but you never know. She could have been crazy. Legitimately crazy. So after I stopped feeling guilty, I couldn't shake the image of her trying to yank the passenger door open. The entire time I had some irrational fear that the lock wouldn't work and that somehow she would get in the car and high jack me or something. Maybe she had cohorts lingering in the bushes. My creative little imagination had me going on all kinds of maybes. Being high jacked or robbed at home was already a fear of mine. By the time I got home, I had mostly pushed the thoughts out of my head. But only temporarily. I jerked awake in the middle of the night because I was dreaming that I was being robbed. For the next hour, the slightest noise made me jump. I did not sleep well at all after that. I tried to figure out where the closest weapon was located and how I would defend myself. Eventually, I got back to sleep for a couple of hours.

After I got in my car this morning, I immediately pushed the power lock. It amazes me the affect that not-so-significant events have on behaviors and thoughts. And I wouldn't consider myself a particularly paranoid person.

Any one looking for a roommate? Are you 6'5", strong and scary enough to frighten the bad guys/ gals??