mayhem, and then some.

i had some idiot in an elevator say today, "messengering in chicago? that's a tough job."
i shrugged, "yeah, it's fun though."
"well, you might not think messengering is as fun when you get hit by a taxi going 45 mph." *chuckle*
uh...seriously?
i stared at him for a second and could only reply, "well thanks, but i don't really appreciate your prophesying my getting hit." he continued on about a friend of his who had been hit while walking and how inevitable it was. fuck dude.
and then while running a light yesterday, a pedestrian ran at me, arms out and tried to grab/hit/something me. uh, if you couldn't reach me, i clearly wasn't close enough to you to be dangerous. some days are certainly harder than others.

this past weekend was MMI! after a really good day at work, jake and chris came over to pick allison and i up. prepared with snacks, we hit the road and arrived in mke, straight to the swinging door, a downtown bar where people just kept showing up. amid cheap beer deals and silly games, things got rowdy and we relocated to the uptowner, awash with underage girls and dance music, and way more chicago kids than i thought were coming up, totally rad. time passed quick between pitchers of blast, dumptruck knocking over four girls drinks simultaneously, allison almost getting chris dilts' in a fight with a crazy cokehead after sinking her almond square in his drink, phew. we finally headed back to brian's friend, steve's house, which was fortunately close. all four of us shared his enormous king-sized bed that did not even necessitate squishing.

saturday began with a late, long brunch at comet, and then finally making it over to registration at 2pm. the group finally moved to the "real start". when manifests were handed out, i actively searched out cooter, the one person i knew actually could navigate milwaukee. we figured out an nice four person group of me, drew, kremmin, and another chicago kid, joe. wind and hills, but no snow made for pleasant race weather, and we jammed through the first couple points. realizing the race was much longer than i originally though, our pace mellowed amid gatorade stops, push ups, crawling across rolling trains, and cruising through side streets of sketchy mke neighborhoods. we finally made it back to hi-hat despite many attempted holdups at the cookie/pbr/tire deflation checkpoint, and luckily arrived right before the sleet began. i was stoked enough on free sandwiches, but the after party really got going when they began giving out free pints of 3floyds. i ended up winning 2nd lady and some new knogs, a swerve hoodie, and some ugly cranks, awesome. results on a blog here. early starts at drinking too often means needing to call it a night early and luckily claire and augie had their shit together to go get cars and take care of us since 3-4 inches of snow had fallen since arriving at the bar four hours prior. we headed back to shea, sarah, and kremmin's but none of them were home yet, so we stayed warm with snacks and drinks in jake's car. their space ended up being totally awesome for eating lots of gross pizza, hanging out more and slowly all finding our way to bed.
the nine some odd of us headed out brunch at the palamino the following morning to meet up with the lost kids from the cuttin cruiser who hadn't made it into mke until late the night prior. directly after, our car headed back to chicago in a bizarre pseudo springtime winter wonderland. chris dilts' kept us all entertained with plenty of stories, so good. arriving home was immediately followed by naps and coffee and seinfeld.
(&hopefully chris will have pictures up soon, he got some really good ones, as always.)

sunday night was our last playoff game for indoor season. we lost but it was a super fun game, and against my better judgement, i went out for drinks with the team after. bad choices, but my whole soccer team just rules, so still good way to go out. rough plans for outdoor when spring *actually* comes, fingers crossed for finding more people to *actually* come out.

last wednesday night i rode down to calhumet to watch the races with a really good group, i forgot how much i missed group rides. 108th is real far south though so i was super glad when james offered me a ride down on thursday to ride in my first sanctioned race! i was kind of disappointing i didn't do better, but i think it gets me more excited to try it more and figure out strategy. a totally different scene, but i think one i will be excited to try out more of.

spring, where are you? so many signs: patio furniture on chicago sidewalks, walgreens sudden halt on glove sales, the "official" beginning of spring, but i'm not feeling it yet. shit, i can't wait...