To Preface

I have always had weird encounters with people in my life, which for a period of time I didn't think was odd. I collected all of these little encounters which danced around in my memories, some bringing happiness, while others, others - put simply, hurt or make me question what the hell had just happened. I didn't think these were odd encounters until I would casually mention an experience in a story, usually in jest, a way to make someone or someones laugh , sometimes as a way to sympathize with another odd experience, until people began to share that some of these weren't normal, not all bad, not all weird, and certainly some good, but all in all situations that others didn't likely find themselves in.

Maybe these odd situations are situations that all women find themselves in and in more recent years, more stories have come to light about what women go through on a daily basis. I have collected some of those encounters in my life, but this isn't a collection of stories/vignettes/whatevers to shed light on every single negative encounter I've had with men, but every encounter of notoriety. Here's the story of the boys working a mall Jamba Juice counter making me smile and gifting me free smoothies on my worst days; here is the story of the man I met in a Lyft when I was 19, two days before Christmas who offered to drive me 3 hours to my hometown in exchange for a drink with him; here is the story of the man who I hooked up with (for longer than I should have) who wrote food porn. I am not here to document and highlight all of the negative encounters I've had with men - though there will be some, but to share and highlight how fucking weird men are, as a whole.* (Everyone is weird, this isn't some attack on gender, thank you.)

In being true to these stories I am going to change as little as possible with the exception of each man's name; some out of respect, some out not wanting to deal with you, and some because I never learned or have since forgot. While these are non-fiction stories, these are also my experiences and how I recall them, so if you actually know me and suspect you may be in this then; hey, how's it going, not loving that you found this if I've already written about you but hey, that's on me, but anyway, you may remember or had experienced these situations different to how I had experienced these situations, thank you, all the best.