Saturday, August 31, 2013
All Quiet On The Western Front (Of Illinois)
I took the train back to Quincy last night for the long weekend. There were several things of note about this. First, the Amtrak employees at Union Station never fail to enrage. I don't know if they get a special training program on how to ignore massive quantities of confused, angry people trying to get their attention while joking with one another about Beyoncé, but they certainly have the skills. Second, a girl on the train was watching The OC season one on her computer, and I don't know that I've ever been more jealous of a human being, except for maybe Tyne Daly, who got to work side by side with Sharon Gless for years. Third, no matter where I sit on the train -- it could be in the handicapped bathroom, it wouldn't matter -- I will always end up behind two people who decide to spend the entire four and a half hour trip "becoming friends." I believe I now have the record for number of people overheard discovering they both live in Lakeview and like going to The Cheesecake Factory. Fourth, our train was actually delayed due to a malfunctioning refrigerator in the snack car. Did you know a properly-functioning snack car is essential to the operation of a locomotive? I hate to think what would have happened if it had been the microwave that gave out. Finally, there is a shocking lack of understanding out there that you don't try to start up a conversation with a person who has earbuds in. Even if that person isn't even really listening to any music, but just wearing earbuds as a device to avoid making small talk with strangers. Man, those things start to hurt after four or five hours or so.
Anyway, I made it! The dog woke me up with a lot of crazed barking at about 6:30 so I got out for a long run before the day got crazy hot. Now I'm checking my mails etc. before I head out for a heavy afternoon of sunglass shopping, followed by a visit to my good friend JC up at St. Anthony's. I'm not going to say that this is the only way to live but, well, I guess I just kind of said it.
I took the train back to Quincy last night for the long weekend. There were several things of note about this. First, the Amtrak employees at Union Station never fail to enrage. I don't know if they get a special training program on how to ignore massive quantities of confused, angry people trying to get their attention while joking with one another about Beyoncé, but they certainly have the skills. Second, a girl on the train was watching The OC season one on her computer, and I don't know that I've ever been more jealous of a human being, except for maybe Tyne Daly, who got to work side by side with Sharon Gless for years. Third, no matter where I sit on the train -- it could be in the handicapped bathroom, it wouldn't matter -- I will always end up behind two people who decide to spend the entire four and a half hour trip "becoming friends." I believe I now have the record for number of people overheard discovering they both live in Lakeview and like going to The Cheesecake Factory. Fourth, our train was actually delayed due to a malfunctioning refrigerator in the snack car. Did you know a properly-functioning snack car is essential to the operation of a locomotive? I hate to think what would have happened if it had been the microwave that gave out. Finally, there is a shocking lack of understanding out there that you don't try to start up a conversation with a person who has earbuds in. Even if that person isn't even really listening to any music, but just wearing earbuds as a device to avoid making small talk with strangers. Man, those things start to hurt after four or five hours or so.
Anyway, I made it! The dog woke me up with a lot of crazed barking at about 6:30 so I got out for a long run before the day got crazy hot. Now I'm checking my mails etc. before I head out for a heavy afternoon of sunglass shopping, followed by a visit to my good friend JC up at St. Anthony's. I'm not going to say that this is the only way to live but, well, I guess I just kind of said it.
