Chicago

I will be flying out March 31 to a place I swore I'd never go.  Chicago.

It's my first business trip.  For three fun-filled days, I get to spend 8 hours playing with the Sysmex XT-4000 then another 6 hours reading manuals for it.  Fun, fun, fun.

Since I also swore I'd never go to Dallas, I'm beginning to think that I should stop saying that.  Especially since I swore I'd never go to LA.

I'm not saying Chicago is a scary place.  I'm just saying it's number 13 in murders, 16 in robberies, and 26 in Aggravated Assault.  They don't even release their total rank in violent crimes.  As opposed to Glasgow which has had one murder in over a decade.

While working in Atlanta (8 in Violent Crime, 12 in Murder, 10 in Robberies, and 7 in Aggravated Assault), I stayed in a small and really, really sketchy efficiency unit in a really, really sketchy part of Norcross, GA.  After a couple nights of watching drug deals going down outside my apartment door—and a week of limping favoring the right side of my ribs after that idiot cop hit me—I decided  go invest in a Kevlar vest.  I dropped by www.bulletproofme.com and picked up a Level II vest.  Level II is the same protection as Level IIa, but heavier and stiffer.  It was a wee bit stuffy in Atlanta (in July), but the added stiffness translated into better protection during a car wreck.  Of course, my second car wreck was a rear-end, so it didn't do me a heck of a lot of good there.

At any rate, the piece of mind brought by being secure against up to three hits from a .44 magnum was worth the $350.  Plus, in preparation for my trip to the Windy City, I upgraded my 5x8" trauma pack to Level IIIa.  It doesn't add that much weight, and I'm guessing it'll be less stuffy in Chicago in March anyway.  I can certainly take it for four days to have a better chance at surviving a meeting with a thug.

Besides, I apparently have as much to fear from law enforcement in Chicago as I do from the lawless.

According to my coworker who preceded me to the training session, the facility and the hotel they put us up in are in a nice part of town, though.  Of course, I don't believe there is a good part of any city with more than 100,000 people.  Mankind was never meant to live stacked on top of one another.  Could be worse, though.

And I shouldn't have to worry about crazy Atlanta drivers, either.  Which actually figured into my purchase as much as shootings.  Possibly more, in fact.  More cops have been saved by their vests from steering wheel columns that bullets, after all.  Maybe they could actually wear their seat belts and not have that issue, though.

The real pain in the rump roast is that I'll be away from my ladies for the longest stretch since moving up here.  I wouldn't mind the trip nearly as much if I didn't have my kids who get excited and say, "Dada!?!?!" as soon as my key hits the front door handle.

HIS said I can draw a laptop from supply for the trip, and hopefully it has a webcam and Skype or Google Hangout.  There's a lot of teleconferencing in BFE, so I have a decent shot.  Plus, this place goes out of its way to make its employees happy, so I could probably use my own webcam and install Skype if it wasn't already equipped.

And because I'm having fun pointing out stupid gun tricks by the CPD, here's another good one.  At least no one was hurt that time.