Under Attack (Part 1)

Today was a breaking point in my career in working as a canvasser for the Human Rights Campaign.  It was a very hard and difficult day for me that left me crying and feeling very trapped. I began to realize that my life needs to hurry up and advance forward because I don't know how long I can endure this war within all aspects in my life.  Enduring pain at Biola was only a warm-up session compared to the amount of emotional stress I had to experience today. But like seeing beams of sunlight poking through the raging clouds above me, the evening to my day gave me encouragement to face another day. 

I woke up this morning in complete doubt of the suddenly chilled weather. Removing the sheets from my bed brought an unwelcoming draft to my legs so quickly that goosebumps appeared on my skin almost immediately.  As I slouched in bed, bitching and moaning about the cold, I begin to debate which clothes I was going to wear again today.  

It was eight o'clock.  I knew I had to leave to get to work on time, but something was preventing me from doing so. As if I had already known it was going to be a bad day. Fifteen minutes later, I had joined traffic with the rest of the laggers on the 15 freeway.  

Prepping at Headquarters, joking around with my friends, and training for another long day, I began to sense that something was going to go down today. Mike had given me my assignment with my coworker Christine to go to City College via trolley. It was my first trolley ride, so obviously I was excited! 

We arrived at City College thirty minutes later to find it to be as empty as London in 28 Days Later. It became apparent that on Thanksgiving Week, students have the entire week off.  As we were walking back to the trolley, I had the chance to hear Christine bitch about how much she hates our supervisor, how he is setting her up for a bad quota.  Mike gave us directions to the Horton Plaza mall in San Diego, we took the trolley a couple of blocks west.  We began to canvass near the entrance.  Then things started getting bad quick.

A man wearing a "Yes on 8" shirt walked by me.  Everything suddenly went slow.  The ambience of the fast cars flying behind me, the shuffling of the shopping bags around me, and the bumping bass coming from the nearby Abercrombie store had drowned out as he walked by. He glared at me as I stood nearby, as he had noticed that I was wearing a rainbow shirt with Obama's campaign logo on it as well.  He had suddenly averted his attention to Christine.  I looked at her and gave her a signal not to talk to that guy.  Because written all over his shirt was "Marriage is God's Law. Man + Woman equals Marriage." Then she approached him and asked him if he has a minute for gay rights.  Luckily, he had continued walking, ignoring every syllable escaping Christine's invitation. But this man's arrival, as we later found out, soon proved to be not a coincidence. 

He continued walking, pulling out his red Blackberry and began to dial a number.  Time was still slow as I was watching this man's every move while still trying to talk to people. Suddenly, he hung up his phone to take a picture of me with his cell phone camera.  Once he had taken a picture of me, he glared at me as he continued to talk on his phone.  It was at this point that this man was not going to be very friendly with us being there. 

My heart was racing.  I looked over to Christine in mid-dialogue with a couple.  Like a mother hen, I made my way over to her to warn her to stay by me.  If this man was going to fight, I was going to not let him go after an innocent straight girl.  If he has beef, he better be ready for a fight. 

For an hour, I stood guard by her as this man continued talking on the phone while looking at me.  I was getting intensely creeped out by this man.  He reminded me of a character written by Stephen King.  He continued spying on us, trying to make it as obvious as possible by taking more pictures of me and talking on his phone.  I kept my eyes peeled for other people wearing "Yes on 8" shirts to arrive; I also kept an eye on Christine, making sure she was safe. I had never been so scared in my life. 

It was starting to effect my performance in talking to people, so I decided to call it a day at the Horton Plaza.  I told Christine to get ready, because we were going to relocate to another place. Then suddenly, we noticed something that scared the shit out of me: the man was no longer there.  

Where was this man? I thought to myself in absolute fear that he might be waiting for us somewhere. But in any case, we had to exit out the way we came from so we wouldn't get lost.  I kept Christine close to me.  I was more anxious to kick his ass; but either way, we were scared.  

Then we made our steps, at the mall, in broad daylight, towards the exit. Awaiting for what lay before us...

to be continued....because im fucking tired.