The Odd Energy Encounter

There are people out there that just rub you the wrong way.
Whether it's their personality, their looks, their attitude, their smell, something. It just...feels like nails on a chalk board to your soul when you have to deal with them.

Working in retail.
I often encounter people that are just odd. For a variety of reasons.
And of course, there are the customers that just, rub me the wrong way.
Yet usually I can deal with them because usually it's one person and our interaction doesn't last longer than 5-10 minutes most of the time.
So unless they have a really strong personality/aura/energy, I can usually handle it with little side effect to my own well fare.

Today wasn't one of those days.

I was covering the register when they first came into the store.
A family of six. The Parents and Four Kids.
And the mother approached me with unblinking eyes, a wide smile on her face, leisurely making her way from door to me in a manner that automatically put me on edge. The whole family put me on edge when the came in the door.
Which is saying a lot. Since being sensitive to people's energies...the fact that they had me on edge as soon as I laid eyes on them....didn't bode well for me.
And automatically triggered the "get away from these people as soon as possible" instinct.
So instead of leaning forward to close the distance between me and the woman, I stayed back only reluctantly straightening when I deemed it rude to keep leaning against the register.

Thankfully, they were just looking for some sort of carrier/shelter for their cat(s)? So that if the ones they had got caught out in a snow storm they would have a sheltered place to go.
-As apparently they had one cat get stuck in the snow storm that happened over Christmas....and didn't make it. :( poor thing.

So I directed them to where our carriers and dog houses were for them to look through.
And happily put them from my mind, hoping that they wouldn't decide to venture over to the fish wall after they were done looking.

Only to have like 10 or 15 minutes later.
A call come over the intercom that someone from my department was needed at the Adoption Center where we keep our cats.

My coworker was busy in the middle of a task, and I'd happened to be between tasks at that moment, so I took the call.
Went over to the cats.
And to my ill pleasure... was confronted with the family.
Who was interested in possibly adopting a cat.
Or at least the mother was.

I was confronted with her unblinking stare and smile as she explained she wanted to see one of the cats and wanted to know what the adoption process was.
So I had her go into the room and shut the door, thankfully leaving the rest of the family outside.
Like I said, one on one I can deal with.

The woman held the cat, really liked it, asked questions yadda yadda.

...and then asked me if the cat was good with kids.

*exhales*
And I 'helpfully' suggested that we bring the kids in so that the mom could see how that particular cat dealt with her children.

Such a mistake. Such a big mistake.

The rest of the crew came in -including the dad.
And crowded around me to pet the cat.
Oh. It felt like being stuck in the middle of raging rapids. The energy buffering me from every side as the kids eagerly reached out to pet the kitty. A mini hurricane feeling for sure.
I think even the cat could sense how 'odd' of an energy this family gave off, as even though she was calm, her eyes tended to remain rather wide as the kids were petting her.
I was grateful to stand up, and get 'above' the energy pool of the kids, to hand the cat over to the dad so he could 'decide' if this cat was a good fit for them.

It took forever really, -which if you're trying to decide if you want a cat makes sense. You want to be doubly sure.
Usually I don't mind.

But today I did.

Why?
Because of them.
It was so weird.

There was basically no concept of personal space with these people.
They easily would stand right next to me, or right in front of me, leaving hardly a hairs breath of distance between us.

I did wonder a time or two if they just didn't realize I was there?
Like I'd somehow blended into the background as they crowded nearby not realizing there was a person there.
Or else, they really had no sense of personal bubbles.
As every single child would get waaaaayyy too close to me.
Which got me tense and defensive.

I thought I could handle it.
But after they saw the first cat.
They wanted to see a second cat.

Which was in the corner of the room.
And I ended up getting trapped in that corner with the too close people. The kids standing right there a half a centimeter away from touching me if they weren't already touching me, attention totally on the cat, and totally clueless to the fact that they were too close to me.

And then it happened a third time.
My back pressed up against the cages.
Fighting every instinct I had that was screaming at me to grab the cat, lock it up and then run from the room to get as far away from these people as possible.

Because honestly. It was awful. Nearly traumatic in a way.
To be surrounded by such odd, soul grinding energy. Their unblinking eyes, their odd smiles, their odd energies. Ah!!!
Plus the fact that they wanted to get another cat barely a week after losing their other one, and the fact that they couldn't afford to buy the cat for another two days when the mom got paid....didn't sit well with me.

To say I was glad to escape is an understatement.

But I felt like they were still around me!!
Like there were cold hands on my shoulders with a gentle pressure reminding me that they were still around.
*shudders*
Such an awful feeling.
I'm a warm person.
So the fact that my shoulders were cold was so weird.
Like cold hands holding onto me.

Ugh. Words can't fully describe it.
But it was awful.
It took like an hour and a half for the feeling to fade away!!

Thankfully...I think I have the energy off of me now.
And I hope that I don't encounter these people any time soon. Ever. Again.

Honestly, I think the thing that has me so freaked out....is that it wasn't like they were trying to suck away my energy, like most people with grating personalities do. No, I dunno if they were trying to add to mine, or if they were trying to just get a connection of a sorts....it was just weird. Weird all around. As it's not something I've encountered before. Which makes it difficult to know how to react to it. O.o
So. Weird.
So. Weird.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi