I've come to hate this form of communication.

Last year I actually experienced an entire 'break up'/ dissolution of friendship via text messaging that, in hindsight, was little more than one person's assumptions crashing into another person's presumptions.

But now I am having a different sort of woe. I recently met a man that seemed interesting enough to get to know better. So, we went out on exactly 2 dates. The first was just a cocktail after work and the various topics of conversation were actually quite fascinating (he has one degree in molecular biology and worked for big pharma briefly before deciding that his real passions had to do with interface technologies in the realm of helping disabled folks become abled, even if they can't use their own limbs). Okay, so not much 'chemistry' there (for me), but there could many potential reasons for that including but not limited to me just not having much energy that day. So I agreed to have lunch with him today. Again, not any sort of a 'spark' for me and I was clear and direct about the fact that I found him very interesting but I just didn't see a future in *dating* him.

From 2pm (when we went our separate ways after lunch) til 6 pm he texted me no less than 14 times. I received these messages but didn't reply because I WAS BUSY...one kiddo at home sick with a sitter I had to relieve, another 2 I had to pick up from school and 1 that I had to get to tae kwon do class. At first his messages were just a little creepy in that overly familiar sort of way: "Do you miss me yet?", and "I hope you have phone set to vibrate so you can get maximum enjoyment out of all of my texts". Ewwww. I barely KNOW this person!

When his messages took on the tone of "why aren't you responding?" and " Do I need to teach you how to text so that you'll respond to me?" (around the 6th message) I stopped EVERYTHING and called him and asked him not to keep texting me as I WAS BUSY and that I wasn't too happy with his patronizing assumptions and sexualized tones. He said he understood. Then he texted me 6 MORE TIMES, and pulled the same shite again. Again, when I got a moment I called him and told him to STOP texting me, that I simply don't have time to respond and that I'm beginning to feel intruded upon.

He texted 2 MORE TIMES. What the fuck?

Apparently I have a text stalker who just isn't getting the very clear and direct messages I verbalized.

Anyway, I thought the entire point of texting or emailing or using all of these other forms of communication that don't involve face to face or voice to voice were intended as a glorified voice mail message...that the recipient could get back to the initiator WHEN they were able to- (or, in what is my case now, when and IF I fucking want to. And I really don't want to at this point!)

-K