is jacob marley walking down my street?

seriously, this is the secong time this week i've wondered that. the other day i said it out loud to SLS because it seemed funny, but i still wouldn't go to the window to find out what it was. now i'm home alone and i heard some crazy clanging again. sure it's bright and sunny out, but i still don't want to know what it really is.
some things of note that people have said to me in the past week:
i'm outside of a bar with the long-lost MQ when this random dude comes up to us - "excuse me for interrupting, but i just have to tell you that i am standing next to the most artistic person i've ever met." i look at MQ, look around, then ask "me?" oh yes, he meant me. he asks me if i do art, i so no not really, sometimes i try. "don't try so hard." "do you believe in energy? i just felt this powerful artistic energy and i had to come over and tell you." and so on. then we all introduce ourselves and to me he says, "oh, a nice hebrew name." "it means princess," i declare. "receiver of riches," he adds. i offer up an incredulous snort. then he starts in, "what would happen if you believed that? just think about it. what if you believed that you would receive riches, if you lived your life as if you were rich. what would happen?" i interrupt to blurt out, "do you have your own infomercial??" he doesn't really respond and continues his spiel, at some point mentioning god. MQ then makes up an awaiting friend as an escape mechanism.
this works, but only for so long. the man comes over to us, again apologizing for interrupting, this time to tell me that i have genius potential (this as i type "genious"...). i still have no idea what his motivation was.
then there is my grandmother... my mom showed her pictures of me in my fancy dress with my fancy hair from my cousin's wedding and my grandmother calls me to tell me how beautiful she thinks i looked. oh how i love her and how i know that she is good intentioned... "i said to you mother, 'do you think when she sees how she looks in these pictures she'll start wearing dresses and make-up?'" oh gramma....

hopefully i won't have to experience any christmases past this evening. that would be too much to handle. maybe marley is just going down my street to keep me from letting that strange man's words go to my head.