Well, that was certainly random.

A little earlier tonight I was on the couch watching Los Doyers play the Cubs while keeping an eye on the clock. Had to run a vital errand over to The Grove to pick up a DVD of Eastbound and Down so that a friend will be able to keep laughing his way through chemo.

The moment Russell Martin broke the game open with a grand slam I was out the door. Had a nice little pedal over to The Grove and it took all of five seconds to realize why I don't like going over there. It's not that there's too many people, it's that there are too many assholes crammed into one space. I quickly lost track of how many times I was bumped into or had a toe stepped on but I did remind myself to pack a taser the next time I work up the courage to go there.

The way back was a completely different story.

I was barely out of the parking garage when I crossed paths with a small squad of Midnight Ridazz kids. I assumed they were going to swarm The Grove and add a dash of excitement to a Thursday night but I couldn't have been more wrong.

Apparently they were out and about escorting lone cyclists home and I was one of the evening's big winners.

A few of them explained what was going on and they were completely serious about following me home. One of them asked my name and for simplicity's sake I threw out my alias Bobby because Todd is a name that never makes sense among a throng of people.

"Your name's Ted??"

"No, Todd!"

"Pat??"

"Todd!!!"

"Steve??"

Even Bobby didn't work because word made its way to the back of the group that the lucky guy being escorted home was named Tommy.

Hilarious.

There's a whole bunch of cyclists following me, I swear.

See, I wasn't making stuff up. *

It took a few blocks to warm up to the idea of being escorted home by a group of strangers but by the time the ride came to an end a couple miles later, I felt like an ass for not having the foresight to have enough beer in the fridge for random occasions such as these.

Next time we meet though, we'll crack a few and have a little party out back.

Thanks for the ride. Hope y'all made it home safe.

And here's a bonus photo that's in focus. Imagine that.

*During the ride, one of my escorts asked if I had a blog. When I told him what it was called, Unicorn magic took over, hence the silly poses. Talk about flippin' sweet.