a note to safety, friendship, and update

firstly, a note to safety. last night at midnight, a random (perhaps not random, but i'm just going to assume is random) man called me on my mobile phone, pretending to be someone i knew. his first words were: guess who i am? throughout the conversation he spoke with a whisper (i still don't know why he had to whisper - i guess to mask his voice). and the "conversation" (if you can call it that) could be categorized as lewd and lascivious. those are big words to basically say, a perverted sex-starved jerk-oid. after some time i decided that it could not be anyone i knew and hung up. you might ask: why didn't i hang up earlier? but to be honest, being in a college campus, it's not unusual for stupid, lame, sometimes drunk guys to make the same types of calls. so... i spent the best part of the first few minutes trying to figure out in my head if this was someone i knew playing a lame joke. however, after hunging up the phone, the man proceeded to call me several more times non-stop. as it was late and the folks next door could be woken up, i put my phone on silent. i think, in the time of an hour or so, 30 calls were made by a withheld number. i still do not know who this person is, but let me tell you that this stalkerish type of call, whether intended to be a joke or not, is very frightening. and it is absolutely unnecessary for people to behave in such a way. there really ought to be laws so that such behavior is punishable by a hefty fine, community service, AND jail time. i'm sorry, i seriously thought my safety was threatened and compromised.

earlier this afternoon, when i relayed this experience to a couple of people who lived in the same house i'm living in, they did not seem as concerned. again, in all likelihood it was just a prank call, BUT - where's the decency? where's the friendliness? where's the hugs and the i'm sorry this happened and hope it won't happen again? where's the comfort for the poor girl who had to endure 30 calls from some unknown man who may know where this poor girl lives? one "friend" even postulated that most likely my number was obtained by a company who sold my information (that really ought to be illegal by the way and punishable to the extreme by the law - not that our goverment is worth a rat's ass). as if this assumption calmed my nerves. if a company sold my phone number they could have easily sold my address as well! sheesh. yes, thank you very much for that guess. it really helped me feel safer.

all this to say, when someone feels their safety is threatened, especially in a situation where law enforcement or the letter of the law will not be helpful (or indeed useful), it will help to be nice and sensitive and gentle to the person who had to experience such a horrific night. (but of course, the lovely folks on this blogland would not need such a reminder about friendliness).

now... to update on crafting, sorry, still no pictures of my latest projects, of which there are many... but... i visited the local paper source and bought some pretty cardstock and envelopes. i'm going to turn the lantern image below (and a new image now in progress) into notecards! since i don't have the finances for a fancy schmancy digital arts type printer or the finances to have things professionally printed (in bulk though and i don't plan on printing in huge volumes), i'll have to settle for the local copier. it's certainly a lot better than my inkjet printer. and we all know that the ink on inkjets are not waterproof. at least the ink at the copier's is. haha. but i promise you i'll make them look nice.

with that said, i hope i get less busy with school soon so i can open my shop!

take care and be safe. (i apologize for the contents and language of today's post. it was a most upsetting day).