OK, I'll take my temperature again tomorrow. If I've still got a fever, I'll call the doctor's office.

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Yikes, Calli, glad you're okay.

Sounds like a good plan, Hil.

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Urgent Care if you spike a fever or have stabbing pain in your back or side. Otherwise, wait so long as you can tolerate the discomfort.

Long day.

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Oh dear, I have a dating problem and I'm not even dating. A friend who is also my massage therapist thought it would be great for me to meet one of her clients with whom I have many shared interests. Ok, sure. The three of us met up for a drink and he was nice but lo I am still massively apathetic about dating and wasn't interested. He asked for my number and seemed like a good friend to have since he has hours similar to mind. Not from work schedule, but from being a gulf war vet with severe PTSD on long term disability with accompanying insomnia. So there's some issues. And in the more than a week since he's been txting me every. single. day. Mupltiple times. First couple days was fine, now it's grating. I don't communicating with ANYONE every day. Yesterday, after several days of ignored or peremptory responses he sent "let me know if i text too much, or not enough. I'm fairly clueless on some thing." I breathed a deep sigh of relief and responded with "no need to text daily, I'll check in when I have something to say". And figured that would buy me at least a day. Nope, another text tonight. Nothing rude or obnoxious, always along the lines of "Hello! How are you? When would you like to hang out?" but every. single. day. it's super irritating, but I don't want to be any meaner or ruder than I already have been...and I'm getting less and less interested in being friends with this guy and his baggage. *sigh*

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You may need to be blunt. I mean at this point I think he knows you don't want him to text is taking advantage of your politeness. I'm trying to remember that exact wording of the quote I'm think of but something along the lines of "women are trained to risk pain rather than impoliteness" . At this point you may need to say explicitly "Please don't text me again." I'm sure he knew what "No need to text daily" meant but he could pretend not to. "Please don't text me again" has no room for interpretation. And if texts you again after that, you might text the friend and ask her to tell him to cool it. Since she set you up, she owes you help if you ask him to back off and he doesn't.

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Hil, feel better.

Calli, ouch. Glad it's over.

erin - personally, that's a red light. Not only ignoring signs, but ignoring a request isn't just super irritating but also a bit worrisome. Some of my close family and friends has PTSD on some level, and it took me a while to understand when their behavior is due to it and when they're just being themselves and I can call them on that. If you'll choose dating him, I can tell you it's getting easier to tell what is what with time.

But I'm not sure if you're asking for advice or not, so I'll stop here.

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I think he knows you don't want him to text is taking advantage of your politeness.

I don't understand this concept. Can someone explain? How can he know and still take advantage? Isn't that rude?

Don't you think he was taught that assertiveness is best and he is following through on that?

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I think he's really friendly and maybe thinks girls really want daily phone contact? I've heard that impression from guys before. I am not one of those girls. I don't see it as mean spirited in any way, but Shir, I am pretty worried about the ptsd aspect. I have zero personal experience with people going through that, and I know just barely enough of him to know that he's going through really major stuff and I admit that I'm afraid to possibly aggravate that :(

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And since it took some thought, responding to....

What kind of shops would a character visit in Portland Oregon for Goth clothes, Goth craft jewelry and decor? skull candle holders, skull necklaces only something less cliched. (Suggestions as to what is less cliched are welcome.) Also the character loves Chinese food. What is a really good Chinese restaurant in Portland? Not overly Americanized. If it is near Powells that is a plus.

Clothing: aside from the usual Goodwill thrift stores, there's:

• Another State of Mind. Downtown near Voodoo donuts (clothing, jewelry, piercing, decor, everything else including occasional rounds of specialty roast coffee supporting the Lone Fir Cemetary)
• Metro on SE Hawthorne (same, minus awesome coffe sold under the counter.)

The Hawthorne area is also chock full of upscale consignment stores catering to the hipster and punk thrifty fashionistas (e.g. Red Light, Buffalo Exchange, and any number of little boutiques that come and go).

• Alteration Nation on SE Hathorne was my first thought (shared space with Corrosion records and sold tickets to the annual Vampire Ball) but they seem to have closed...my websearch to make sure they were still open took me to an "Altered Nation" advertising clothing and piercing which sounds promising but i've never been there in person to vet. My inclination is that most goths now do a LOT of clothing shopping online, but those are the brick and mortar shops.

Chinese food more difficult, not something I seek out. Relatively close to Powell's is Chinatown (area of inner NW marked by the bright red lamp posts), that seems like a good place to start for authentic, non Americanized options, seems like there's multiple places on every block, yelp might have good reviews/recommendation. Plus Chinatown almost guarantees a nice soupcon of transients shooting up outside.

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erin, as suggested here, clear boundaries are your friends. You might want to be more blunt than usual, because boundaries are important in any case, but they're a bit more crucial when it comes to people who are operating under some kind of vagueness - may it be personal or mental one. Sometimes it's not about being blunt as making it as simple as possible to the other person.

Second, I wish I could recommend on any reading, but I can't. All I know comes from my own experiences, and experiences varies. Maybe you can ask a professional about it, but if you don't know PTSD, reading about it before might help. For one, I don't think it's that different from a relationship with someone with depression, bi-polarity or a physical illness. In the end, it's about knowing the person from the illness/situation, and accepting both. Flexibility and a sense of humor help.

And last, the golden rule. You can and should take responsibility for your own actions and words, but you can't take responsibility on the way others interpret them. Especially if you were very clear about your boundaries. (Maybe I'm just reflecting here, but that's a lesson I need a constant reminder of).

(Well, actually, under "last" I really want to write this: I don't care how many issues he's dealing it, trust me - if he'll hurt you in any way I will search and destroy, PTSD or not).

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