There’s friendly and there’s friendly…

Dave Chapelle had this skit on his show with this old guy just saying annoyingly, “Holla, holla, holla…lemme holla at cha!” You can be thoroughly annoyed with it here. Anyway, every time I get out of my car at my apartment, I think of this character… Just today I was carrying out a very large picture and my purse from my car after returning from work. I hear above me from a balcony of the apartments several feet away, “You need some help?” I peer up to see two smiling 20 or 30 somethings grinning down at me, creepily. I say, “No thank you,” and quickly shuffle my ass into the house. This isn’t the first time. There is, to me, a difference between being genuinely friendly and being friendly.

So I’m dreading my trip into the house because I know in a short five minutes after changing to go workout I have to hear them again. This time I have no clue what the bloody hell they said but I pretend not to hear. When I return from Curves (yes, Curves … don’t laugh), I get out and AGAIN THEY ARE SAYING SOMETHING. What they are saying I couldn’t make out but this time I look back and say, “What?” Both of them, again with those crazy smiles, peer their heads down through the railing and just look at me. I quickly make my way up the stairs…To me it’s like that guy yelling “holla” over and over: It’s bothersome and creepy (did I say creepy enough?) and I hardly can make out what in the world they are saying half the time. Compounded with the fact they just keep on spouting crap as I walk up the stairs every day. So what is this? Harassment? Innocent flirting? Just some guys drunk and goofing off? Not really sure but you can never be too safe. I mean just today a coworker friend of mine got mugged in broad daylight. More on that in a later blog. You just can’t be too comfortable with your surroundings. But with this usual routine, I don’t really feel in danger necessarily. Just bothered and yucked out but I don’t let my guard down. I never considered myself the type to hate cat calls. I find them mildly amusing. But I find them mildly amusing away from home! The idea of a cat call in my neighborhood makes me kind of throw up in my mouth just a little. Let’s just say not the best of neighbors as a whole.

Some may consider all this “holla” behavior, cat call or not, to be sexual harassment. I dare not take myself too seriously to say that is what it is but it definitely is a nuisance! And not at all flattering.

Holla.