Ugh. I have an alias I trot out if a stranger asks me my name and lying is preferable to either telling the truth about my name or about the fact that they're creeping me out. It's pre-prepared so I can say it with the kind of conviction one tends to have about one's name.
I last used it on a busdriver who was driving me home late at night and I was the only person on the bus and his small talk about the earthquake drifted into compliments on my sense of humour and culminated (some time after I'd become sufficiently uncomfortable that, when he asked, I introduced myself as Jane) in an offer to detour the bus so he could drop me off right outside my house.
I mean probably he was just a clueless dolt who thought that this offer would make me feel more safe or something.
Or it could have been a prelude to an episode of Criminal Minds: New Zealand with no guarantee I'd live long enough to fangirl at my favourite characters.
Fortunately I live in a cul-de-sac so there was no way the bus was going to be able to turn down there anyway, but it's just a bit tempting to invent an imaginary address. (Also, in retrospect, to maybe email all the bus companies, when I have time, to ask them to gently remind their otherwise universally fantastic bus drivers to please avoid being creepy.)
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Date: 2012-08-28 11:10 pm (UTC)I last used it on a busdriver who was driving me home late at night and I was the only person on the bus and his small talk about the earthquake drifted into compliments on my sense of humour and culminated (some time after I'd become sufficiently uncomfortable that, when he asked, I introduced myself as Jane) in an offer to detour the bus so he could drop me off right outside my house.
I mean probably he was just a clueless dolt who thought that this offer would make me feel more safe or something.
Or it could have been a prelude to an episode of Criminal Minds: New Zealand with no guarantee I'd live long enough to fangirl at my favourite characters.
Fortunately I live in a cul-de-sac so there was no way the bus was going to be able to turn down there anyway, but it's just a bit tempting to invent an imaginary address. (Also, in retrospect, to maybe email all the bus companies, when I have time, to ask them to gently remind their otherwise universally fantastic bus drivers to please avoid being creepy.)