my "i almost got mugged!" post

so i was almost mugged on my way home this past wednesday night, around 10:30pm on argyle and sheridan. i was coming from my friend lucy's house. she lives on glenwood and carmen, about 10 blocks from my house, so about 10-15 minutes on foot.

as i was walking up to argyle's cta station, i noticed a short black guy with a hair pick tucked into his matted up afro, a dirty tank top and something shoved in his back pocket with his tank pulled down over it so it looked like a box was sticking out from his left ass cheek. my 'dar signaled me to be aware. he seemed to be pacing in front of the station but he eventually stopped to sit by the empty storefront after the alley that borders the cta rail line. as i walked up, he was staring at me pretty hard and as soon as i walked past him, he got up and started walking. he was trailing behind me by 3 feet so i hurried up to catch up with some mexican guy who had come out of the cta station a few moments before i had passed it. but nappy 'fro in a tank top matched my pace and kept the 3 feet distance. eventually, my mexican friend turned left onto winthrop.

shit, what do i do now?

i crossed the intersection of argyle and winthrop to the south side of the street, thinking that was the test to make sure if he was following me. i mean, this could just be in my head, right? i turned to look behind me. yep, he was right behind me.

once on the south side of argyle, i slowed down to keep the older, and obviously tipsy, black guy smoking a cigarette walking west towards me in my line of sight. but once i passed him and got to kenmore, i decided to cross back to the north side of argyle because there was a couple walking up the block. my tank top wearing friend followed. the couple i spied were two drunk and laughing riff-raff types, a middle-aged white woman and black man, walking west up the street from sheridan. i figured i was still safe; they even stopped him to talk. but he really didn't want to talk to them because when i turned around to look, i saw he was watching me as i walked towards sheridan.

at this point, i considered going to big chicks to wait a bit or call MCL to come pick me up. but something inside of me said, "no! you're going home!" (good thing i had liquor courage from being tipsy, damnit! oh yea, i kinda forgot to mention i'd had a drink or two. i wasn't drunk tho.). so i crossed over to the south side of the street to walk to the corner of sheridan.

at the southwest corner of sheridan and argyle, there is a lamp post, some newspaper kiosks and about 5 feet further south, a bus stop. then it's a desert until you get to ainslie street - poor lighting, no open businesses, an empty parking lot, an empty parcel of land, a dark, tree-covered park: a real wasteland. but i had turned the corner and left him behind mid-block with the drunk couple on argyle. something told me to look back before i passed the bus stop; i needed to know if i was safe to run or if i was just plain crazy for considering trying to get through the "wasteland."

but when i turned back, there he was, turning the corner and walking pretty fast towards me. a lot of shit started going through my mind and i realized i was scared. i turned around to walk past the bus stop, but i got bold. i turned around and stopped. he stopped. for a few seconds, we stared at each other until i finally said, "what?!" all pissy like -pretty funny in retrospect. i mean, i CHALLENGED him. wtf was i thinking?

that's when he ran for me.

this is where it gets crazy, my mind came up with two options: dig my heels into the ground and fucking swat this motherfucker with my bag as hard as i can or run into traffic (mind's dialogue: do you want to get attacked or go to the hospital? either way, you'll end up in the hospital! fuck it, you have insurance! run into traffic!). there wasn't a lot of traffic but cars were passing here and there. there was a huge van with blacked out windows parked between the bus stop and the empty parking lot. as he ran for me, i ran around to the other side of the van so any oncoming traffic would see us if he were truly going to attack me.

luckily, a cabbie had seen me turn to confront the guy, saw him run for me and then turn back around when i ran into the road. he had slowed down to see what was happening and stopped to ask me what was going on.

i explained to the cabbie the guy had been following me for three blocks, was about to go for me but that i ran into traffic. i told him i lived 3 blocks down sheridan road. he offered to drive me home and he really pressed me to call the police. thank you, whatever higher powers are out there for making him notice what was happening.

when i got home, i was on an adrenaline high and shaking. i told MCL what had happened. MCL immediately got dressed, saying, "i want to go take a walk in the neighborhood to meet some people," all vigilante-style with the dog. i told him not to confront anyone and i didn't want him starting shit with the wrong person. MCL did go out and walked over to sheridan but he said it was a ghost town .thank god too because he was pissed. i was afraid he was gonna go do something stupid.

isn't that nuts!?! in all the years i've lived in Chicago, i've walked around at night many, many times, sometimes alone in this city. i never dreamed that something like that could happen. i guess, as tyler durden likes to say, on a long enough time line, anything can happen. this experience was certainly a lesson learned: no more walking around at night by myself.

it's all taxis now.

update:
i realize i was very lucky in this incident. after talking with a few people, there are a few lessons i'd like to share with anyone who cares:
- do not walk alone at night if you are a woman, or a man for that matter.
- be aware. don't listen to your ipod if you have to walk alone at night. there's nothing worse than shutting down your senses in a situation where safety is questionable.
- trust your instincts. you know more than you realize. my instinct was that this guy was casing the people coming out of the argyle el stop, he was looking for someone to mug.
- always go where there are people. in my case, this was near the few people that were on the street and into moving traffic.
- consider carrying pepper spray.
- do not do what i did: confronting him. i was very lucky, but it's just not a good idea to do that. what if he had been bolder than me?
- if you are being followed, enter a business, a convenience store, restaurant, even a bar. i should have gone to Big Chicks instead of insisting on continuing home.
- also, maybe always carry $10 for emergency taxis.

Shan's Foods: a gem in the middle of uptown

not too long ago, i sat on a southbound 151 bus, staring through the window feeling depleted and exhausted. lost in my day dream of getting home, after we passed foster, i noticed a sign that read "100% halal zabiha". i perked up.

reason being, indian/pakistani cuisine is one of my all time favourites. mostly because i'm a spice addict and really, no one does spice better than the south asians, but also because as a gluten free wheatard, part of re-learning how to cook for myself involved learning about indian and pakistani food (millet and chick pea flour as well as the myriad of dishes involving lentils are a wheatard's best friend).

i scanned the sad little strip mall of windows and realised that Shan Foods perhaps wasn't a crappy chinese restaurant, but possibly a chinese-pakistani restaurant! after discovering usmania chinese on devon, the silk road style of cuisine has become a bit of an obsession for me. either way, if it was pakistani or chinese-pakistani, the prospect of having a pakistani restaurant - period - within 6 blocks from my house got me excited.

i came home and told the boyfriend about my possible discovery. we promised each other we'd go check it out. and 3 weeks or so flew by.

last week, my friend anthony posted a facebook update about having eaten there. i commented by asking if it was any good. he replied yes, and cheap too. oh man, things are getting good and looking up for food-crazed sunny!

tonight, when i got home to find lucy canceled yoga due to her friend going into labour, the boyfriend brought up going for mexican. while i love me some al pastor tacos and guacamole, i was in the mood to cook. however, after realising it was close to 8pm and i'd be cooking for an hour before food would be ready, i threw out, "what about that Shan restaurant down the street?" i was curious to find out if it was chinese-pakistani or just pakistani anyway.

so in the miserable rain, we trudged down sheridan to Shan's. i cannot stress how well rewarded we were for that soggy and chilly 6 block walk. turns out, Shan's Foods is mostly pakistani cuisine. we ordered shami kabobs, samosas (for the non-wheatard), masoor dahl, lamb biryani and keema aloo. of course, i had to have a lassi - salty for me, thank you - and we gobbled up just about everything. the food was nicely spiced, the service fast and friendly and the bill was cheap! the bill total was all of 26 smackeroos.

also surprising were the grocery aisles stocked with indian curries, various spices, a nice array of lentils and remarkably, ground millet and teff flours! Shan's Foods also happens to carry a fresh selection of injera (ethiopian bread to accompany those amazing curried wat and lentil stews they make, but that's another story) as well as fresh produce staples like red onions, garlic, cilantro, chilies, curry leaves and ginger. i can't tell you how thrilled i am to know i can run there for my last minute cooking needs.

also, there is a sweets counter full of halwa, ras malai, galub jamun and barfi, among other things. i was too stuffed to even contemplate sweets after all that food. it's just another reason to return.

uh, hello, pakistani gem of uptown? where have you been all my life? actually, that life would only be the two months i've been living in crazy crackhead uptown. and who'da thunk there'd be other perks to crazy crackhead uptown besides cheap rent and proximity to the lake?