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shortstack
03-08-13, 9:33 am
Cage Experience,

Getting to the cage this year was a disaster for me as I ended up missing my flight and sleeping on the floor in Chicago’s luxurious O’Hare airport. I locked in a nice 3-4 hrs. of sleep before finally getting on the plane and making it to Columbus around 8am. Made a clothes change, shave, and a face wash and grabbed my rental to head directly to the CAGE.

It was jam packed all the way from the parking garage to the main floor and after securing my ticket at will call, I made first contact with the animal crew. House and G-Diesel were out handing out swag to the loyal legions and shot the breeze a little before moving on to the mass of people.
I ran into Deanna, Joe, and Rebecca hanging outside one of the entrances and chatted for a little bit while the doors were beginning to open. Once they did, the fact that I was exhausted didn’t make a difference and I made my way to the cage with Deanna.
The line for the Shop was crazy long but, getting all the LE stuff right away was worth the wait. I saw the Chicago boys pressing out some shirts with Nick L and was immediately impressed with this year’s Uniform. I said all my hellos to Rage, Oscar, J-Dawg, Christian, and NG before making my way over to the cage.

I made sure that I was front and center again for the Higa/P-Diesel rematch as well as seeing Seath knocking out his squats. Both events were awesome and seeing everyone huddle around and support each other was a great display of the brotherhood that is only visible in the cage. They were great events to kick off the 2013 Arnold Classic.

Saturday
I got in early to meet up with Sam and get into the cage and get to work. Nick L showed me how to run the shirt press machine and got me set up to start the craziness. I was working with Razor, Nix, and Firefist. Razor was an awesome lead and definitely helped out keeping things going. He spent all day Friday knocking out shirts so he rotated around in some other areas but always checked back in to see how things were going. Nix also did a great job pressing shirts and helped when the line went a little out of whack. Christian also kept coming around and made both Firefist and I shakes to keep us going, thanks Brother.

Firefist, this guy had the weirdest names come up and he took on each challenge with a great attitude. We spent, almost, the entire day together knocking out shirts like, as Sam said, a couple of bartenders hustling customers in and out while interacting with each one to see what they were about.
I was surprised that most of the customers were not on the forum and didn’t know about the ABC on Sat night. Most of them just wanted to get the cool gear that Animal was putting out. I tried to take time with each customer and fill them in on the forum and the ABC. I didn’t want them to just walk away with a shirt and have no idea of what that A stands for and who we were as a brotherhood.
After the madness ended, I helped gather up the inventory and make sure that everything was ready for the next day. It was a great experience and had the ABC not been next on the list, I would have been bummed to have to leave.

The ABC was off the hook busy and I got in a few sets on a couple of machines with Rage. The food was excellent and from spending a bit of time talking with Juggernaut, I think that the group photo will be great. He’s a true master at capturing what the night is about and credit must be given to his artistic vision.

I left that night having to return home the next morning but the renewed fire to be my best had once again been not only lit, but set ablaze. I always walk away with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication after the Cage weekend, and this year did not disappoint.
Thanks to Universal/Animal for allowing me to help out and represent not only the only brand that I use but the brotherhood and family environment that the Forum creates.

Shortstack

Phil800101
03-08-13, 3:35 pm
Great seeing you again brother! Hopefully we'll be able to get together and train sometime this summer.

smoothballer
03-08-13, 3:38 pm
Great seeing you again my friend.

Razor
03-08-13, 3:48 pm
It was awesome seeing you again my brother. Been too long Jeremy. It was an honor working with you bro and so glad you had the opportunity this year! Great write up! It captures all the insanity that goes into that weekend.

Firefist
03-08-13, 3:57 pm
Great writeup homie. Im ready for a round 2 with ya already.

deanna7272
03-08-13, 4:08 pm
It was so nice getting to catchup before the hustle and bustle!!! We were fortunate enough to not stand in that huge ass line... No chance of catching us waiting back by the art exhibits...lol. Great seeing you again this year, we need to do this more often...lol

Ragin Asian
03-08-13, 5:36 pm
It was great seeing you again Jeremy! I'm just sad we didn't get to spend more time with you. (sniffle) (sniffle) We need to find ways to hook up more!!! Always a pleasure to see you and hope we can train together and hang out soon!