RandomDC

So I've been on a personal campaign to be nicer to people I randomly meet. I feel that one of the biggest downers to anyone's day is when people are just cold and rude. I figure if I smile at someone and say thank you every once in a while, maybe it will make that person's day a little better. But today I found a problem with this theory.

While walking to work this morning with my headphones in and doing my usual speedwalking, I heard a faint "Good morning" through my music. At that moment I had two choices: I could be like 99% of DCers who would continue walking straight ahead and never look back, or I could be nice and respond. Being on this try-and-be-nice-kick, I took out one headphone and turned my head responding "Good morning" back. Now in no way did I slow down or invite more attention, but rather plugged my headphone back into my ear and continued walking briskly. But luck was not on my side this morning because the next thing I hear is "Do you work around here?" which I politely but vaguely answered and continued on my way. Only to be followed by: "What's your name?" which I also politely answered.

By now I had gotten the fact that he was trying to pick me up which of course meant I got asked the eventual, "Can I take you to lunch?" to be followed by "Are you single?" and "I would like to be friends." UGH. No matter how politely I said "No thank you" or blatantly passed over his questions, this young, black man named Amir who works at the construction site across the street from my office didn't seem to take the hint that I wasn't interested. Nor did he seem to get that badgering me was only going to piss me off. So in the end I was completely rude and ignored him flat out while waiting to cross at a light (he was turning right).

And to make matters just plain weird, this guy gets half-way down the block and then crosses the street and starts coming back up the block towards where I was walking to... Uber creepy! So to ditch him, I ended up walking all the way around the building and cutting in a side door just to make sure he wasn't following me. Not what I needed this morning...

And to make matters more interesting, apparently my boss was in his car at the light debating whether to honk at me or not... Of course, when I told him what had been going on, he said that he wished he had honked b/c then the young guy would have been really confused as I got into a strange Mexican's Mercedes when the young guy couldn't even get to first base. (Yes, that's really what my boss said.)

I still don't know what to think, but I'm really hoping I don't run into this guy on my way home.

So in the end, I'm left with a dilemma: Next time, do I be completely rude and cut this crap off at the beginning, or do I continue to try and be nice and then get harassed by guys who don't understand the meaning of "No." Thoughts?