I think I may have a serious problem...
The past two weeks have sucked and yesterday and today have just shown me how much of an issue I may have. I've been dealing with a couple of stalkery types for a while. It's gotten physical with one once and I managed to get myself out of the situation but this latest incident has me a bit more concerned than the past ones. Usually I'm dealing with drunken assholes but we had a problem in town and it's a bit more than the ones in the past...
Tuesday morning I was sitting at my desk and I heard a knock on the huge plate glass window in front of my desk so I look up and wave as usually the guy that owns the hardware store down the street is the only one that knocks on the window to get my attention. It wasn't the hardware store guy... it was a guy dressed in all black, with a black hoodie and what looked like a Luchador mask with flames on it. He stared at me a while and then took off. My boss walked in a few moments later and I made a comment about how odd the people in this town can be and told him what happened so he goes off to look for the guy and make sure he's harmless, we both guessed it was a high school kid out for a laugh.
It seems that not only was I visited but also some of the girls from the Pharmacy actually had him come into the shop and cause a stir. He was the talk of the coffee shop when I went to get a Hot Chocolate and it seems that my boss and a few others had reported him to the police. When the police caught up to him he tried to fight the officer and went for the officers weapon, broke the officer's finger and it turns out he wasn't a kid but an adult that was living in a local halfway house, he had a knife and he's been arrested for violent behavior before and even threatened a the officer and his family before since this isn't the first time he's been picked up. He has a history of drug issues and mental illness, as he was being arrested this time he made threats to get back at everyone involved in his latest arrest. They had even locked down the local schools until he was picked up, just my luck that I wave and try and make nice to the psycho.
This just tops off the crap fest this last few weeks have been, I'm really considering scrapping everything I have here and going back to school full time and maybe even leaving the state to do it. I was so depressed and upset the other night I almost called my parents to see if I could move back with them while I try and figure out what to do next. For some reason I just can't find the contentment I had, I know I'm never going to be happy here but I was content and now I'm just getting more and more depressed and feeling more isolated than ever. I keep hoping it's just a phase but it's not going away and more crap just seems to pile up.
I did look into moving and I can transfer my State License to Georgia or Florida without much hassle and I was really looking into it when I realized that the kid who manages the Family Video starting salary if $5k more than what I make now and I'm a State licensed professional with 21 years of experience... it make me wonder just how much time and energy I'm wasting here and it's not like I can move up any as there is no place else to move up too here and my last few raises have been more of a "the cost of health insurance went up so instead of a raise we're keeping you on the policy" and then it was "thanks to the new tax stuff we're giving you enough of a raise to keep you almost at the same rate of take home that you had" so I'm making less than a kid at the video store and can't do anything about it unless I leave. It would be a lot easier if I didn't love my job and the people I work with.
I figured I try and take a few classes and finish my degree and I get screwed there too... I live in the only county around this area that doesn't have a community college and after looking into it I'd have to pay the out of county rate because I'd have to go out of county... when I was in New York if you lived in a county without a college you got the in county rates for the adjacent counties. PA is just out to screw me seven ways to Sunday. If I leave I'll miss my job, my co-workers and the women in my yoga class but it might be worth my sanity and now my safety to leave... I really need to find something to be happy about.
I'm usually a more up person but it just gets worse the longer I'm here. I need a change so badly.
Tuesday morning I was sitting at my desk and I heard a knock on the huge plate glass window in front of my desk so I look up and wave as usually the guy that owns the hardware store down the street is the only one that knocks on the window to get my attention. It wasn't the hardware store guy... it was a guy dressed in all black, with a black hoodie and what looked like a Luchador mask with flames on it. He stared at me a while and then took off. My boss walked in a few moments later and I made a comment about how odd the people in this town can be and told him what happened so he goes off to look for the guy and make sure he's harmless, we both guessed it was a high school kid out for a laugh.
It seems that not only was I visited but also some of the girls from the Pharmacy actually had him come into the shop and cause a stir. He was the talk of the coffee shop when I went to get a Hot Chocolate and it seems that my boss and a few others had reported him to the police. When the police caught up to him he tried to fight the officer and went for the officers weapon, broke the officer's finger and it turns out he wasn't a kid but an adult that was living in a local halfway house, he had a knife and he's been arrested for violent behavior before and even threatened a the officer and his family before since this isn't the first time he's been picked up. He has a history of drug issues and mental illness, as he was being arrested this time he made threats to get back at everyone involved in his latest arrest. They had even locked down the local schools until he was picked up, just my luck that I wave and try and make nice to the psycho.
This just tops off the crap fest this last few weeks have been, I'm really considering scrapping everything I have here and going back to school full time and maybe even leaving the state to do it. I was so depressed and upset the other night I almost called my parents to see if I could move back with them while I try and figure out what to do next. For some reason I just can't find the contentment I had, I know I'm never going to be happy here but I was content and now I'm just getting more and more depressed and feeling more isolated than ever. I keep hoping it's just a phase but it's not going away and more crap just seems to pile up.
I did look into moving and I can transfer my State License to Georgia or Florida without much hassle and I was really looking into it when I realized that the kid who manages the Family Video starting salary if $5k more than what I make now and I'm a State licensed professional with 21 years of experience... it make me wonder just how much time and energy I'm wasting here and it's not like I can move up any as there is no place else to move up too here and my last few raises have been more of a "the cost of health insurance went up so instead of a raise we're keeping you on the policy" and then it was "thanks to the new tax stuff we're giving you enough of a raise to keep you almost at the same rate of take home that you had" so I'm making less than a kid at the video store and can't do anything about it unless I leave. It would be a lot easier if I didn't love my job and the people I work with.
I figured I try and take a few classes and finish my degree and I get screwed there too... I live in the only county around this area that doesn't have a community college and after looking into it I'd have to pay the out of county rate because I'd have to go out of county... when I was in New York if you lived in a county without a college you got the in county rates for the adjacent counties. PA is just out to screw me seven ways to Sunday. If I leave I'll miss my job, my co-workers and the women in my yoga class but it might be worth my sanity and now my safety to leave... I really need to find something to be happy about.
I'm usually a more up person but it just gets worse the longer I'm here. I need a change so badly.