Meanwhile, back to the subject at hand...briefly, here, the latest thing is that the 180 female lifeguard has been put on notice for sleeping on the job, bringing her family to the pool before it closes, etc , etc.

(I can see the pool from the computer room, as can a hawk who loves to perch up here on the solarium roof, spread his wings out and sun himself. Then he picks his feathers and flies off when his partner calls.)

The lifeguard goes to the bathroom as soon as I get in the pool. So nice to know she cares!

                                                                   dun dun dun

Edited to add: can't you log into the web-based Yahoo mail to check the first one?

I once worked at this New Age resort and alot of the hippy kids were wonderful people that I wanted to hug, but the people who ran the place and some of the workers talked "light and love", I now see, to tenderize you prior to consumption!

Ermolai. I would like to hear some more from you about your experiences with "lions",
if possible.

You might say that for now I "live among them!" They see me and I see them and naturally there is a mutual wariness.

I've found myself in the middle of lions on several occasions lately. You'd be surprised where that was, not the super-rich people, on the surface they were even "anti-establishment"! Anyway I believe that there is no better opportunities than those to build strength and get rid of a nagging need to belong. That is, unless you want to belong to their stomach

This is a quiet enclave with many wealthy people using the pool, and I had found these lifeguards a refreshing difference from rather stuffy individuals of another generation.
I have hesitated to speak up in part because there are ahem, prominent families (not naming names, but a similar one is Dow) and doctors, an economics professor at an Ivy League, etc. And even when they are not around, I sense that speaking up could only make me seem a pompous ass, to put it mildly. For all I know some of these people are financially linked to the current war for oil, in fact I would venture to say that it's likely.
I'm sorry I did not include this in my first post, I guess I was in the middle of a conversation with myself and was so anxious to see what you all would say that I neglected to !

Perhaps now you get a picture which sounds familiar ! I'm sure some of you can speculate (which I enjoy as long as no one gets hurt) about various possibilities within only what I have said so far, and believe me there is much, much more. I simply want to be smart about how I go about these, as we can be sure some element or other of TPTB are watching. You might say that for now I "live among them!" They see me and I see them and naturally there is a mutual wariness.

At any rate, I have no doubt that as far as the loosh idea goes, speaking up is a better way than the sometimes wishy -washy Libran diplomacy  I have been guilty of .
But whose to say that , considering my long term interests here and the stakes which are involved financially for some, a lifeguard, just as an example, would not make a perfectly nice spy? Probably I am way off the trail, they would not use that ploy . But I do think it odd that some people seem to be a distraction for me here in a suprisingly disarming way; they seem to know I feel an obligation to be polite when someone is speaking to me , especially when others are there. Also, so few people are polite and nice of late that it would seem just a bit to good to be true that these lifeguards are so literate and have so much in common with me (again, there is much more on that count that to me is too strange to be commonly accounted for...) and are such good conversationalists, etc. Perhaps it's the east coast, and the context, but these people work in less chi-chi environments as well, or so I am told .

The social fears I have which may be in part unconscious are to be the death of me if I don't take a tougher approach, I fear.Well, maybe not the death of me literally, but you see what I am saying.

Today the female brought a male "friend" to the pool, and he and I gave each other looks of daggers. It's suprising how deadly a pleasant pool can seem! To be continued.

I was just a little lost when I intitially read your post.  I felt like when one walk's into the middle of a conversation and quickly tries to figure out what the conversation is about and what's going on, and only has half the story.   I know it made sense to you what you were talking about, since you were there, but to me it seems like things were left out.     At any rate, I went back and re-read it all more carefully and I think I understand what you were trying to relay.   Basically, you have neighbors who are acting like they are monitoring you and spying on you, mumbling strange stuff, whispering into a cell phone while looking at you, and you can't figure out if their actions really indicate that they are monitoring you, or, if they're just messing with you to get a rise out of you (loosh extraction.)

Sorry about the confusion.  I'm on the same page now!   Never mind me!    

At any rate, I believe this stuff only works on those people who they know will be sensitive to it.  I'm a bit sensitive myself, so I can say that I have experienced some weirdness slightly similar to what you describe - buuuuut - I also have the personality that will confront something like that, or yell something out -- IF I have to, and IF I'm backed into the corner and put in that situation.  It takes a bit of effort on my part, and doesn't come naturally, but I've learned to do it and have trained myself to "speak up."   And in general, I just don't give a crap anymore what strangers think of me on top of it.   So lo and behold, guess what?!?    This stuff has stopped.   They don't do it anymore.   No more strange people I dont' know "coincidentally" yelling BIZARRE stuff out or staring at me and acting funny.  Poof, gone, done.  See ya.

That's really the only 2 cents I can toss in.   They tailor their attack modes towards what works on the target.   For a sensitive person, this is something that would work.  For a not so sensitive person, they have to come up with a more clever angle. 

Try modifying your reaction, see what happens.   And give us the update!      Best of luck.

Lyra, please explain what you are lost about if possible, I would like if possible to get your input on this.

Trust your gut, it usually is right , that is not to say do not introject your intellect into it, but for myself I have found listeing to that little inner voice (instinct or whatever) is a big time kick in the you know what.  I get the feeling that this is a test (what isn't!) and they're harvesting on your responses but they just can't seem to MAKE you run through THEIR gauntlent-haha. Fool them, make them sweat, act like you don't have any clue that you're on to them (it's kinda fun when you have someone else with you while trying this).  The more fun you have with this, the more confused and disoriented "they" get.  Feels as if they can't keep up with your league and are grabbing for straws as far as what to do next.  Testing for your parameters so to speak.

As wise interaction forbids an acknowlegement of this possibility, and cherised hopes of common friendship wane, I grow wary. The samurai would not say "You are my enemy! I'll get you, you dastardly dunce!"  No words were needed. It was just "known", and if you didn't know you hired another samurai to spy for you: a ninja. A ninja had no honor, and like an agent, had the bribery and the spying and the sneak attack. ( And also if you didn't know ....Your'e Fired!)

To test the situation I went to the opposite end of the pool from this person, which I never do, and wrote furiously. Then I left. When he saw me writing and not interacting with him, he did a double take, then was on the cell-phone lauphing sardonically. Mere social discomfort? Possibly. But how odd I felt as I looked into those eyes at other times, how strange and infuriating when he and his girlfriend (who just happens to be from the same town in Cali that no one ever heard of) talking about me....I had the volume off and perhaps this conversation wasn't a coincidence. What they said was contradictory: flattering yet insulting at the same time, and I got they feeling they knew that this sort of thing "drives me bats."

Yet at the same time I feel terrible suspecting them of all this loosh manipulation, they are otherwise just such nice people. Yet there is that gut feeling.

Today was a day of dark realizations for me. Perhaps it's mere gossip, which can be bad enough at its worst in its own way. My intuition tells me that either something has changed in the MCS programming, or my subconscious has added up a tally of observations which my conscious mind refused to acknowledge. After all, these are supposed to be friends.

Are the coincidences too great (there are others beside the hometown, but they seem innocuous enough), or am I "jumping the gun?" All I know is that I suddenly realized that all these happy similarities suddenly did not add up to the boon friendship this picture painted.

Another individual, this one female, seemed to me to mumble something cryptically about me into her cell, but it was unclear what. Then she went right back to a 180 degree different tone and demeanor and acted as if nothing happened. Strange.
Perhaps they are sent to torment me subtly and extract loosh with half-hidden insults.
Like anyone, I am imperfect and can be a jerk, but I'm not SO bad! I keep to myself around here for the most part, yet I feel they know so much about me. It can hurt, but I have to remind myself it's not me, it's either human ignorance, etc. or agents.

This kind of interdimensional warfare can sneak up on me, and I feel it ratcheting up, so stories, feedback and commiseration are surely welcome. Not a time to play it cool if we can share data. We know how to be careful.

I can't say I haven't been warned! ( Sorry, Ice Cream, but so have you.)

                                                                        Wasabi Sedna