Tonight was kind of...weird. I stopped at one of my favorite watering holes, a little dive in Carlisle, PA called the BBQ Place. Despite the name it's a bar, across the street from a truckstop.
As usual I carried my knitting pack in with me. The bartender, who has been working in this place for even longer than the 20 years or so I have been stopping there, immediately asked me what I was making now. I hadn't even opened my pack and taken out my knitting yet. I did so and showed her the cabled scarf I am working on, and while she grabbed my usual brew (without my having to order it) ske asked me how the sweater had turned out. I guess that was what I working on the last time I had stopped in.
I sat at the bar and drank my beers while I worked on the scarf. As usual a few people asked about the knitting, and some casual conversations ensued. But then things got a little stranger than even I consider nornal. One guy came over, who looked like a regular (even a little trashy) trucker, asked me what I was doing and said "Dude, that's really cool", and while checking out what I was knitting kept putting his hand on my shoulder and stuff.
I should explain something about my nature. I am a very friendly, easy-going sort of person, but I do not like to be touched. It's just the way I am. Unless we are very, very close, don't put your damn hands on me. I don't like it and it tends to make me less than friendly and easy-going.
I was trying to keep things light and fun and tried to warn this guy off at first just with body language, tone of voice, and eye contact, but either he was too drunk or too stupid to get it, and I was getting more pissed by the second. Luckily Janie (the bartender who knows me quite well) came over and told the guy he had best take his hand off of me before he found himself laying out in the ditch and bleeding (she could tell I was getting pissed). He apologized and went away rather quickly.
Later, another guy, a really big dude, came over and expressed an interest in my knitting. I immediately got a bad vibe from this guy. I don't know why but I just immediately felt like this guy was a gay guy cruising for a date (fine but I don't swing that way). Nothing about him would have suggested it, but it's just what I picked up. He was a little too friendly I think. He was also one of those who likes to put his hands on you.
At this point I'd had several more beers and was less, ummmm, reserved. Again Janie came to the rescue because just as I started to come off my stool to slam this guy's head against the bar for yet again putting his hands on me she stepped over, gave the guy a free shot, and told him to go sit down and drink it as she felt he was bothering me. When he asked me I just sat back on my stool and said "Yeah, you really are".
Janie's a pro.