#6 – Creepy Stalker Awkward

There is a fine line between admiration and just plain creepiness. The tricky thing about the line is how illusive it becomes at the first sign of excitement. The line that was once as obvious as a barbed wire fence suddenly becomes as strong as a spider web in a tornado.

We all know people who have never even heard of this line. For the majority of Disney fans and society in general, there is a certain amount of restraint and decorum most people are able to manage on a day-to-day basis. However, when this line is crossed – or in my case completely trampled and torched – Creepy Stalker Awkward becomes the new reality.

I hadn’t even made it inside the Expo on day one when my Creepy Stalker Awkward moment began. Jeff and I were hustling along to the front entrance of the Convention Center when Jeff made the tragic mistake of saying “Hey, is that guy wearing a Mousetalgia tee shirt?”

As we peered through the glass, our eyes widened at the sight of a young man (for the sake of anonymity, we’ll call him Rockford) wearing a yellow and white Mousetalgia shirt. While Jeff chose to remain on the side of sanity, I hoped on over the line, pulled out my camera and took the Rockford’s photo through the glass like he was a Panda at the zoo. Each beep from my digital camera became another nail in my coffin of creepy. You could practically see the writing on the fogged up window – I had crossed the line and wasn’t looking back.

The swirling winds of insanity picked up speed as Jeff and I booked it into the Expo. Our paced quickened to that of a mall-walker as we combed the crowd for Rockford. Finally, with our target in sight, we rushed up to the poor endangered panda and sealed the fate of the moment as Creepy Stalker Awkward.

Winded word vomit poured out, beginning with the somewhat sane statement of “Hi! We’re Kristen and Jeff from Mousetalgia.” This is where Jeff tried to jump in and save me from complete humiliation. He didn’t stand a chance. I had already crossed over into crazy town and in the process of doing so, had left behind any sort of filter or measure of good judgment.

At first, Rockford seemed happy to see us. He didn’t actually appear to be frightened until I said “We saw you from outside, through the windows, and I was so excited that you were wearing a Mousetalgia shirt that I started snapping photos of you through the glass and then we came running inside to catch you!”

Boom! Crazy Stalker Awkward right there.

While I mentioned earlier how quickly the line disappears, what I failed to mention is how severely it snaps back into place. Like a broken guitar string or a faulty rubber band gun, when the line comes back, it comes back with a vengeance.

I’ve never seen the expression on someone’s face go from cheer to fear as quickly as Rockford’s did. The line was back and I was standing on the wrong side of it. That’s when I said “Oh my gosh, I’m so creepy right now. Could I be any creepier? I’m so creepy.” On a related note, stating that you’re creepy does not help the situation at all. In fact, it just makes you even creepier.

What followed was an extended moment of awkward silence followed by Jeff apologizing for my lunacy and ended with me walking off with a big C for Creepy stamped on my forehead. Lucky for us, Rockford was either extremely understanding or very forgetful and actually came to the Mousetalgia meet the following day…where I continued to apologize for my creepiness, thus earning me the place of number six in the D23 Top 10 Awkward Moments.