Adventures in Northpark

Last night Adam and I went to the mall to do some shopping and on our way to the foodcourt we encountered the mace that was the talk on the news last night. We saw a stream of people coughing and trotting away from the court, but we thought they were just being silly. Adam said jokingly, "maybe we shouldn't go down here". As I walked ahead in warp Jessica speed I encountered an invisible fog of mace. I must have been tyring to breathe in the sugar and flour that the food court offered, since I knew I wouldn't be eating it with my diet, because I was immediately coughing and inwardly screaming "my eyes, my eyes!". The look on the non-coughers faces as they looked at the coughers was funny because they had this "what is going on?" look and then slowly the look of panic came over them as they too started coughing. Adam said, "it's mace!".

Adam only mildly inflicted with a burning throat bought me a drink so I could end the agony that is mace, which I drank nearly in full within 30 seconds. As we walked through the mall the coughing echoed upstairs and down as everyone moved away from the court. As we approached the complete other end of the mall I was surprised to find people coughing yet again. I knew we were one of the first to encounter the mace and to Adam's credit he was right in guessing that the ventilation system carried it to the other side. It was then my eyes burned again and the inside of my nose. It reminded me of last Christmas when Chandler and Adam opened a jar of habanero peppers we previously had for 3 years. I was not stupid enough to try them but someone was stupid enough to not be cafelful with the juice from the jar and it ended up on my steering wheel. It gave a whole new meaning to a burning stare, which I did give to those resposible. That stuff was so strong that even days after I couldn't put my fingers near my mouth or it would burn. Adam tested this by biting my nail so he can attest to its truth.

We ate in Ruby Tuesday's and watched as firemen and policmen entered (or infiltrated I should say) the mall. They stopped some teenagers (which I can only assume are the ones that were later arrested) from leaving, but we didn't see any real altercations. I felt so bad for people who worked in the food court or were eating there with children and there were all these cute dogs having their pictures made with Santa. The news said it wasn't normal mace, but something equivilent to police issue. That makes sense because even my lips were burning well after the incident. So there. That was our exciting adventure.