dzrose, thanks for passing along the tip. i don't know if this is helpful, but another friend of mine once told me that whenever she had to walk alone (to/from the car before/after work, or from the parking lot to the dorms) she would carry her keys in her hand in such a way that most of the keys were inside of her closed fist and her car key (which was the longest and umm.. sharpest of her keys) was the only one sticking out in between her fingers. If anyone tried attacking her, she said, she'd poke his eyes to injure him so she could get away
I don't know how effective that would be but it sounded like a good idea if you have no other way to quickly get away
