"You look confused." / My Story Chapter III

I'm going to stick with the post-departure stuff for now. As I said, I want to record all of those incidents with as much detail as possible since the fact that the situation has followed me across state lines makes it a federal issue. There are other, bigger OS issues I'd like to cover, but I'm finding good opportunities to cover various key aspects of OS as I go along.

I left without anything close to a concrete plan and was so tired when I got to Chicago that I decided I should find a place to stay there, though I wanted to press on. I guess it's somehow fitting that I ended up in, of all places, the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illiniois, of "The Usual Suspects" fame. (Kevin Spacey's been in some great movies. My intellectual egoism still makes me think I'm the only one who saw the hole in that film's plot, though I know that couldn't be the case. I can't remember the exact nature of it, but it was related to the shot late in the movie in which the guy was standing behind the white van with the doors open. Of course, it was my brother with whom I discussed it. He didn't see the hole.) Hoping to just find a place by driving around didn't work out, so I looked up the nearest Holiday Inn on-line and sure enough, there was one right down the street from where I was. It was one of the nicer Holiday Inns I've been in, though the jacuzzi was a little too hot.

The room was great, the staff was great. For the price, it was a very nice facility. There was one odd little unexpected twist though. The nightstand in the room contained a Que-ran (sp?) as well as a Gideon Bible. Woah. How could that possibly happen? I mentioned this in passing to someone and they informed me that the proprietors were of Indian heritage. Strange coincidence.

Happenings in Skokie get better, but the first post-departure OS experience had slipped my mind until just now, so I'll relate it here since I would like to go chronologically as much as possible on either side of the departure. The incident was so brief, I nearly forgot about it. But first I need to mention a common OS tactic: having various stalkers use the same phrase or sentence. Over time, OS evolves to the point where all they're doing is letting you know that they're part of it and that there right there in your life all the time--constant reminders that you have zero privacy and that your every move is being tracked. Using common, yet obscure sentences that don't apply to the current situation, place, or conversation in two different places by two different people or groups of people is an effective way to do it. The farther apart the locations, the more effective the tactic will be.

One of the main guys delivering veiled death threats to me at work was one of my direct supervisors. I'll call him Dick. Dick had been married and divorced something like four times and his anger at life and everyone around him was pretty evident. Our veiled-threat-filled conversations were usually strewn with his knowledge of, and affinity for, World War II Nazi Germany. He loved to rail against the federal government (a point on which I don't completely disagree with him) and, of course, President Obama couldn't do a thing right if you asked Dick. He was also gay, so... there was a lot going on in that tiny little brain, which is probably why he regularly came to work high and/or drunk. Exploiting his grandfathered-in authority (The head boss, Sally, explained to me once that she keeps him on because she feels bad for him and because he'd been there for so long.) to abuse his subordinates seemed to be his main source of life satisfaction. I guess when you're completely lacking in any other notable attributes you're bound to be that way. The guy who referred me to the job used to hide whenever Dick came to his gate.

Another guard there, Jimmy, a young man working midnights who had just completed police acadamy training, passed his state test and was networking for a job, had warned me about Dick's issues and that he was out to burn everyone, anyone, any time he could. Jimmy was a good guy who was trying to achieve something--and did-- so naturally, the "in" clique among the guards had somehow managed to label him as a bad guy. What... a... joke.

I'm glad I picked up a book about non-fiction writing by Ayn Rand before reading any of her other crap. She was on the money, though, when she talked about how society is designed to destroy or at least hinder the best, most talented people. Bourgeois mediocrity... they fight for it. A quote by Lisa in a recent episode of the Simpsons I caught validated my suspicions of Rand's politics by her claim that liberals want to have a dictator. How does one manage to associate people mainly known for fighting for civil liberties, particularly freedom of expression, with fascism or totalitarianism. I fail to see the logic. Someone's going to have to show me a Venn diagram on that one. So, rock on, Jimmy. You were a diamond in the rough there and I applaud your pursuit of higher goals despite the nonsense rhetoric leveled against you by those nonsense people, especially Dick.

Anyway... any chance Dick got to use a subtle, verbal OS psychological torture tactic on me, he did. I'll cover more of his comments throughout this story, but here I'll mention one of the last things he said to me while I was still employed there: "You look confused." The cool thing was, I responded, "No, I'm not confused at all."

So... as I was traveling through the great state of Indiana, I noticed a sign for the "largest Big & Tall outlet in the world". If I haven't mentioned it, I am exceptionally tall. 6', 9" to be exact (My brother is about 5', 6". More on that later.), so naturally I had to stop in Elkhart to check out the proclaimed global mecca of Big & Tall apparel. It turned out the only thing that was really worth the trip was a shoe selection with quite a few big names in my size and in styles that appealed to me, which is rare. Unfortunately most of the dress shoes had higher than normal heals, so I didn't get anything. Other than that, the place didn't impress me much.

While I was walking around, I noticed a couple guys and a girl come in. They looked to be in their early to mid 20s, I'd guess. The guys were of Latin descent and the girl was Caucasian with blond hair. I kind of suspected them for some reason. It gets to the point where a T.I. can pick stalkers out--kind of an instinct thing. Though that awareness is a good thing in a way, it does add to the effectiveness of the OS campaign-- the paranoia of it. What if they weren't really stalkers and I just thought they were? Actually, I've considered this dilemma and found that I'm correct about 90% of the time. Nevertheless, I didn't want to be paranoid, so I blew it off.
Later, when the three of us just happened to be standing near each other while browsing, one of the guys said to the other two, "He looks confused." and laughed. There was no one else within earshot of the comment. I was immediately remind of Dick's comment. This was my first indication that the stalking had followed me out of the state and at the time, it was greatly, greatly depressing and unnerving. Despite what I'd read about OS following the T.I. around the country, or even the world, I was hoping against hope that I would leave it behind me. No such luck. I ended up departing the store before them, so I hovered around the intersection to see if I could catch them coming out and identify their car. It didn't happen though, so I left. Then I went and had a burger at Dairy Queen and a guy and his wife gave me a dirty look there. Man, did that ruin the rest of the trip to Chicago.

Joseph C. Zoccali, Clearwater, Florida; Rick Wilson, Niles, Ohio; Christine Faranda, Cleveland, Ohio; Len Spector; Marc Greece, A&E Networks; Reverend David Plank, Palatine Bridge, NY; Carrie (Plank) Bruno, Queens, NY; Cynthia Green, Tech Recruiter; Sioux Logan, Red Stream Technologies; Mike Tricario, MTV; Sean Newman, Columbus, Ohio; Jim Reed, Columbus, Ohio; Zynga; Marty Eggert, Cleveland, Ohio; Kathy Haxton, Cleveland, Ohio, St. Joe’s Medical  Center, Warren, Ohio; Coleman Professional Services, Warren, Ohio; Laura McCormick

An Pham, anpham1111@gmail.com; Anna Stepnova, stepnova@aol.com; Barbara Anne Wolf, wolf.barbara.anne@gmail.com,  (415) 812-4926; Brian Montague, jetbpm@aol.com; Charles Crites, critesfam@sbcglobal.net; EHSOH, lovycera@gmail.com; Elizabeth Nicolosi, elizabethnicolosi@hotmail.com; Kristy Guertin, guertk@spu.edu; Meagan Franz, meaganfranz@hotmail.com; Miyako Abe, mtea2006@yahoo.com; Nora Salah, nsalah01@yahoo.com; Teresa Keller, teresa@rtwwithus.org; Natasha Warder; 

Kathleen Kashay; Erica Agyeman; Darcy Estes; Alison Victor; Tracy Dietz; Kaitlin McGaw;