I am steaming mad. Just steaming. Aaaaahhh! (Right now I am looking upwards and shaking my right fist at the sky.)

This whole thing started one week ago when my neighborhood grocery store (Vons on Los Feliz Blvd.) hired a new Assistant Produce Manager.

The first time I saw him....I'm sorry this is just really hard to relive....the first time I saw him I was standing near the banana display and this new produce guy said....he said....I'm sorry this is still pretty fresh....,"Can I help you find something?".  Can I help you find something?! Are you fucking kidding me?! I just felt so used. So dirty. It was like time had stopped.

Of course I left the store immediately. And when I returned 45 minutes later, he was still there. Rearranging the organic zucchini, sweet as pie, as if nothing had happened. Unbelievable! And once again he approached me (they always return to the scene of the crime, don't they?) and this time he said....god, this is just so hard...."How are you doing today?"  I felt like I had been set on fire. Just aflame with disgust and fear. I was afraid for my life and I bolted. Ran straight for the exit.  I mean, can you blame me? I went home and just showered his filth right off of me.

Over the next few days I made it a point to revisit his produce section. Many, many times. I couldn't let him win. I had to show him that he couldn't intimidate me. He couldn't terrorize me. If I didn't follow him around, he would be the victor in all of this. So, after continuing to verbally accost me on several occasions with his, "I just got some great butter lettuce in," and his, "Pretty hot today, huh's?", he just clammed up. He acted as though I wasn't even there, no matter how often I brushed him with my cart, or how hard I stared at him. His Plan B, I suppose. But, you can't un-ring a bell. So today, after 2 hours of his silent treatment (2 hours, can you imagine?), I took action.

I went straight to his supervisor (not easy to find in the labyrinth that is Von's) and I filed a complaint. I told his boss that, Dave....well, I'll just use his initials, and his initials are....Dave Wigstrom....had been harassing me for what felt like years and that I would like him to be stricken from the Von's employment roster.

To be blunt his boss seemed a little baffled and not very responsive (maybe a ploy?) to my crisis. What he'll do remains to be seen, but I'll keep you updated. It's just really important to talk about this stuff. Not to keep it all bottled up. We can't allow ourselves to be treated like yesterdays bruised peaches, right?