The Clients I Dread...

I've always had kind of an amazing gift for attracting incredibly unstable people. My husband says I attract all the weirdos. I am not quite sure what it is about me that makes them want to continue to interact with me long after our initial encounter. Once they meet me, they want to stick around. They want to keep bugging me and maybe even freak me out a little bit.

Maybe sometimes I am too nice. Maybe I give people the benefit of the doubt a little more then they deserve. Maybe I should tell people to f$*% off more.

Monday, I received a phone call. It started out innocent enough. It was a man calling about setting up a photo session for his girlfriend and her baby. He was referred to me from an old graphic design client. Or so I think. That part is still a little fuzzy. He hadn't seen any of my work and had no idea who I was, but had my name and number and wanted more information. So I went over some things and talked to him about pricing. We went off topic a little bit, he discussed how his girlfriend was a graphic designer and I mentioned that I was as well.  He had also started a new business himself and his girlfriend was doing the design work for him. He seemed pretty normal. Then after we ended our conversation I emailed him some links for my photography website and facebook business page.

Things kinda went down hill from there.

Within ten minutes of my email, he "liked" my photography page and sent a friend request to my personal facebook page. He then sent me back an email, letting me know that he liked what he saw and was forwarding it to his girlfriend.

Then I started getting one liner emails from him. He asked me to check out his FB business page. Then I get one that says, "How long.u been doing this ?.." Not sure how to respond, I replied with a short answer, "I’ve been taking photographs for friends and family for years, but I officially launched my business last October.  It’s been very exciting!!" Then I get an email back that just says "Sweet".

Who calls up a business, talks to the owner, and then proceeds to start sending them random email text messages and acting like we are BFFs all of a sudden??

This may not seem like that big of a deal, but by now I have looked on his facebook page to find some interesting status updates... One update talks about how he misses her and spending time with her. He is sick of waiting around for this relationship thing... Um I thought you had a steady girlfriend you wanted to book a shoot for? Was he planning on booking a shoot and using it as a gift to woo her back??

So the next day while working, I get another one liner email from him "Hows it going today". I just didn't know how to respond to that. So I didn't. Later that evening, I got a message from him on FB. He wanted to know if I wanted to design his flyers and business cards. Um, dude, I thought your girlfriend was doing that?! WTH? So I looked on his FB page and he was going on a tangaent about how the whore was back, the clubs were back, and basically bitching that this woman was messing around again. He is posting this stuff on his FB page and not really talking to anyone... just ranting and putting his dirty laundry out for everyone to see.

Don't you love when people do that? They really let you in and give you a good idea of what a true whack job they are.  No one wants to hear about how much you hate your girlfriend/boyfriend/ex. Unless they are a close friend, and then they should probably be hearing it from you, not your FB status.

I pretended like I didn't catch the link between him asking me to do his design work and his girlfriend supposedly doing it. I replied to his request by telling him that I was not doing any design work right now. That between the photography business, a toddler and a very busy husband, I just didn't have the time for it.  He replied "ok", then asked if I knew of anyone else that could do it.

No. I don't know of anyone that I should unleash you upon. Again I just kinda ignored him.

Then he adds to his status update a photo of a jack daniels bottle with the line "it's on" underneath. I guess from there he proceeded to get drunk.

Within a couple of minutes, he puts on his status update that "he is done" and that he is sick of no one wanting to do his design work.  He also puts something on his BUSINESS page along the lines of telling everyone to shove it and that he was done trying.

First of all, I'd really like to know who gave this dude my name and number so I could punch them in the throat.  I have blocked him from my page, but I am hoping that doesn't piss him off and make him seek me out and act crazier. Every time my phone rings I cringe.

Maybe he is completely harmless, just a wierdo with totally jacked up social skills, but still.... I am not into this at all. Plus I think being pregnant makes me more paranoid and worried about my safely just a little bit more. Probably cuz I can't karate chop a mutha to the head quite as quickly if need be.

I am just hoping that this goes away quietly...