Best Defense

Today I made a purchase that was probably a smart move, but a purchase made that I didn't want to have to make, because it addresses in the front of my head that at certain times throughout my week, I may be in danger.

You know when you're not necessarily rolling in the dough, and you avoid looking at your bank account because if you can't see it, it's not real?  It's kind of like that.

Today I purchased some mace off of Amazon.

No, not that kind of mace.  As in pepper spray.  "Police grade" they call it.

Last night I was leaving work at midnight, and I was entering the Redline station at Addison.  I heard yelling and shouting inside as I entered, and this girl outside with a stroller said to me, "You might not want to go in there," but she seemed a little out of sorts/crazy so I went in anyway.  I couldn't see anything happening, but heard a lot of different people who forgot to use their inside voices.

I enter the train station, and behind the turnstiles is a large group of thuggish men, fighting, and with blood all over their clothes.  I checked my surroundings and there were $5 Footlongs from Subway thrown all over the ground, and also on the ground there were several puddles of blood, and spatterings around as well.

People seem to have trouble understanding what's going on in that photo, so know that it's all the ground, and the can there is a decal on the floor advertising Coors Light.  And that's some blood next to it.  Quite a bit of blood (scale is hard to make out in this photo -- sorry)

The neighborhood where I live seems relatively safe... but anything can happen anywhere.  I see troubling looking people all over Chicago -- the city that has surpassed New York City as the most violent in the nation.  That's a title not worth scoffing at.

The neighborhood in which I work has become, from what I've been told, more and more dangerous in the past year or so.  A bunch of undesirables have made their way from the south side and like to party it up in Boystown and cause all sorts of trouble with people walking along the street.  No fun.

So now I will be carrying mace with me, in my pocket, in my hand, as I walk from work to the train station late at night.  It worries me though.  I've never used anything like that.  If I'm confronted with someone with a weapon, will I actually take the risk to pull out the mace, aim it at their face, and press the button?  Too many thoughts would occur.  What if I miss?  What if they reach out to stab me while being temporarily blinded?  What if I'm not fast enough?  

What if I'm outnumbered?  It's a bit of peace of mind, I guess, since my only protection before this was holding my keys in my hand, and knowing I'm a ridiculously fast runner... but who's for sure that they're not faster?

It's something.  Probably a smart idea.  At least if I am confronted by someone, I have an option to defend myself and that's always a good thing.  Now, if I'm blindsided and punched in the face at random, that's something else.  I just want to avoid the blood in my veins spilling out into the open air and onto the surfaces surrounding me.  That would be totally uncool.

Progress Report

I'm sitting on the purple line right now, updating from my brand new iPhone 5s which I acquired yesterday. It's a beautiful piece of machinery about 7,500 times faster than my previous iPhone 4.  Now I'm looking forward to reading this post in about a year, when I'll be cursing how crappy and slow my iPhone is. Such is the life of technology!

So the purple line. My first time on it. Heading to Northwestern University to workout with a friend at their gym.  

Progress has been good. Been studying a lot on many different aspects of fitness and browsing the forums over at a reputable bodybuilding website. 

That's as of today.  Why is the chest so hard to build?  I want it big and I want it now!  

So that's going well. Everything else in the world is pretty much standard. I mean I could tell you the debacle it was on trying to obtain my new iPhone but it's really not that interesting. Mostly frustrating and I'm done venting about it because no one cares and the issue has been resolved. Anywho...

That's what's going on in my neck of the woods. What's going on in yours?

Worst Blogger Evaarrr!

I should really work on keeping up on this.  I wouldn't mind keeping it as a fitness log, which some might find interesting, some might not.  Who knows.  Who cares?  I don't need to categorize this thing... I'll write when I feel like writing.

On Saturday, a couple friend of mine and I took an epic road trip up to Saugatuck, MI.

It was pretty fun.  When we arrived, we realized that this place, which he had heard was a gay resort town, was chock-fulla heteros and families.  No bueno.  The gay resort there was booked solid, however, for some hardcore fetish party.  Interesting.  They were all confined to their resort and didn't venture out into town.  So all the gays in town were not only fetishists, but confined to a highly secured gay resort.  Lame.

We walked around town a bit, had a lunch in a crowded straight restaurant, and were all in a pretty defeatist mood.  We were about to head back to the city, do some wine tasting along the way, but decided to grab a Geocache (look it up) before heading out.  The closest one brought us back to the gay resort.  While there, we decided why not go ahead and grab a drink.

We spoke (flirted) with the bartender, he told us about the event, and said the bar, at least, would be open and pretty fun later in the evening.  He talked us into booking a room across the street -- where they have a pool -- and so we did.

We went swimming, later went out to dinner, got some alcohol, had a couple drinks, went to the bar, drank there, and met a lot of awesome people.  It led to a skinny dipping party in our outdoor hotel pool.  Awesome.

Whatever else happened stays in Saugatuck.

The next day we went to this awesome diner full of middle America people.  Out of shape, unattractive people who don't take care of themselves and go about every day life waiting for the days to pass until they are sent to the golden gates to meet their maker.  It was interesting to say the least.  Like somewhere they would go on an early episode of Roseanne or something.

We also went apple picking!

It was pretty adorable and now I have way too many apples and it didn't even cost me $5.

We did end up grabbing a geocache before leaving Michigan (because I want to find one in every state if possible!), which was in a beautiful area that kind of closed the book on summer in a way.  It seemed like things are about to slow down around these parts.

What's Going On

This update comes from my iPhone, so don't expect the usual great strides of poetic bloggery. 

Now, this is what has been going on. Still working out as much as possible (within reason) and I think I've been making pretty great strides.  Here's a photo I took last week. 

Legs are still a bit scrawny but the upper bod is coming along. 

Last weekend I was in DC. A friend I made at the bar works in travel and invited me along on a trip to DC. I had never been, so it was a pretty awesome experience.

I bought a Michelle Obama magnet as a souvenir. I kinda love it. 

That's about the short of it. Enjoying Chicago and all it has to offer. Friendships are developing nicely which is exciting. I might have more to say later. Next weekend I have plans to go to a gay resort town in Michigan, and then a gay theme park night at Six Flags the following weekend. It's gonna be a gay ole' time.