Post #750488 by KonaKaiBaby on Mon, Sep 7, 2015 7:35 PM

Thanks so much everyone for your replies! And for the bday wishes!

Sven, thanks for answering! And thanks for reining me in. Yes, I guess I was stretching a bit. The two are intimately intertwined in my mind--and to a large extent in my personal history--but, historically speaking, the link is certainly more tenuous. And yes, pizza just jumped to mind in the moment, but in follow up I used examples like kitchari and kvass, which have one particular cultural origin, but have become a household name in the US (at least here in Vermont!). Though it didn't really seem to matter--anything I said fell on deaf ears. I wish my words about my own personal history and culture had been received by her, but they were merely met with vitriol. But many thanks for your input and encouraging response.

Ukutiki, all you wonderful Tiki Central folks are invited! Though I imagine Vermont is quite a road trip for most of you :wink:

I continued to receive increasingly harassing messages from this individual today, until I had to resort to turning off all messaging on the page and blocking her from seeing my personal profile, as it became obvious by her remarks that she was cyber stalking me (hopefully only cyber...). Sadly there seems to be no way to block her from the page, unless she posts publicly, and all of her communication thus far has been in messages. So I have been seriously thinking about deleting the event page and creating a private one. My husband thinks I should just ignore her and not let her win by doing this, especially since the URL is on all of the invitations we sent out. But it makes me nervous. I wish she was just a nameless troll, as I could shrug that off, but sadly she apparently lives only minutes from me. I've since discovered that we have mutual acquaintances (on FB and in real life) whom she proceeded to contact today, and she urged them to pressure me, as well. I did contact our local police barracks today to check in with them, and they assured me that if she does come to the event and causes trouble, they will be more than happy to help. I'm really praying it doesn't come to that. I don't want any drama, just a relaxed, joyful birthday.

The whole experience has really saddened me, as we created the page (and our home tiki bar) because we host house concerts and other community events at our home. We don't make a penny off of any of it--it's just a way to connect with friends and neighbors and support local musicians. But I feel unsafe now, and like I should just take the whole page down and forget the whole thing.

But I'm trying my best to let it all go for now and just enjoy the birthday week and party preparations...I do love planning and organizing events! Thanks again everyone for your support and helpful words of encouragement! :)