as an urban dweller, I'd thought I'd seen it all.
I've lived in Chicago for all of my life. I do not drive a car, so I generally walk or take public transportation everywhere I need to go.
Imagine my surprise after all these long years of random acts of grossness on public transportation; feet on the seat, sunflower seed husks on the floor, garbage, drunkenness, getting felt up, cell phone abuse, and other general glimpses of the sad conditions of humanity.
None of them prepared me for a man walking up to each and every person on the Belmont train platform and asking if they had cable installed in their homes. At ten o'clock at night. I didn't actually talk to him, so I have no idea what company's service he was trying to sell.
Or, a man on the Clark bus sitting in a seat begging for change. It surprised not only myself, but everyone else after me, and some people actually gave the guy money.
Or the realization that I had sat in something wet on the train. I got up at my stop and instantly noticed a wetness that I hadn't while I was sitting.
Now, perhaps these things have lottery like odds of occuring to the same person once, but how about twice?
How about all in the last three months? I've been riding the train more because it's easier to get to work that way.
I guess I should just accept that this is the city I have lived in all my life and it is a festering boil on the skin of humanity.
posted by stine @ 5:29 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I think perhaps to taunt me a little, last night, after writing that post and going home, on the train, two odd things happened.
I waited patiently for the first car (my favorite, usually full of available seats) and got it when the train arrived. I had not been sitting for more than ten minutes when a man facing in my direction began bellowing so loud that my eardrums actually quivered. He was saying something like he knew how we knew that we were all wrong. I looked up at him and met his eyes, murky, indifferent, staring off in the distance, and figured he wasn't talking to me at least, but cripes, the volume was turned up way too high.
He must have noticed the movement of my face because he then began directing his raging commentary at me and when the train stopped at Jackson, I jumped off it and raced to the next car.
I sat on the first pair of seats and tried to recover my composure. Just then, I noticed a shiny half inch cockroach waddling along the rubber treads on the floor of the train car. If anyone else noticed it, no one said anything, and I said nothing.
It was very gross. I kept imagining how many nights I had taken the train and left my bag on the floor. I could be bringing little friends home for the cat to play with at least. Ugh. I was so repulsed and grossed out that it felt like my skin was crawling with roaches, even though I knew it couldn't be true.
Eventually the bug was no match for a thick soled boot from a man who seemed not to realize his destruction of a life.
I bet that is the same roach that was crawling around on the damn trains when I was taking them to school too!! Amazing the things we see and it seems others don't see. Makes ya wonder just what it is they are seeing in "their world" as we see in ours. Remember to check your purse before going home:) UGHHHH!
Hey there, Miss the stories also miss hearing how things are going in life, hope all is well there. Iowa is frosted over but otherwise doing just as fine as frog hair.
Hugs to ya. A.K.
I hate to devote an entire entry to just how busy I've been, so I figured I would sneak one in here. I tried calling you tonight, by the way, around 10:45, but the busy signal bleated at me.
I am in my last week of the semester, so things have been busy not just with the juggle, but with keeping life sane and sleeping enough and working and spending time with Eric, and sometimes I've just been so depleted that I don't know what else to say.
I have been writing a lot. I have done yoga at least three times a week. I have been attending classes. I have been seeing friends (though not enough of them or all of them). Eric and I went to see The Life Aquatic...last night after a pleasant dinner at RJ Grunts. I brought home lots of leftover sandwiches from work which I ate throughout yesterday and today. I've been trying to do all the things I have to do and have a healthy mix of all the things I want to do.
Thanks for the reminder to get back to the writing here. I want to write an entry about a place I went for breakfast on Sunday with my friend Dan the Man.
Hey there! Good to hear from you!! Sorry we missed your call! Maybe I will pick up the phone and dial you this weekend. It does sound like you are leading a whirl wind busy life! I know the last few weeks of a semester can be time consuming yet you get a whole lot of nothing done that you really would like to. But hopefully in the end it will all be worth it!
Love ya! A.K
Hey there! It was great talking to you!! Letter is in the mail:) Love ya! A.K
Hey Kitten,
Thanks for the letter. I got it yesterday and was very glad to receive it. I will let you know what turns out as a result.
I hope your training is going well.
stine
Hey there, Thanks goes to your dad, I just stuck the stamp on it:) LOL
Hope all goes well for you. Things here are trudging along hopefully in a good way. Time will tell. I am not a class person so this has been a real eye opening reminder of that! I commend you for going to school and enduring for the better education you are receiving. KUDOS to you dear Scholar! Love ya much. AK
Well, truth is, going to class at a school for the arts is kinda like being in kindergarten.
But thank you for the kind words. A lot of times I am really astonished by how firmly I declared I would never return to higher education, because I'd flunked out, fucked up, six years had gone by, school systems and administrations sucked, [insert diabolic ranting here]...and yet swallowed my pride, admitted I might be wrong, and went back anyway.
I think it's amazing that you're doing a job that requires so much generosity and kindness, but then again, maybe that doesn't surprise me much at all.
And daddy, if you're reading this too, I find myself lost as to more to say than thank you...
stine
Hey there, I know what you mean about going back to school,, been there had same thoughts , but I just dont like the sittin in class thing, have a week and a few days more then a test to tell if I have a job or not,,, we will see,I hear it is a "B" of a test. I hate testing on paper. Lemme show ya and we will be fine! So time will tell.
How is the snow there? Here we got a dusting but not bad. Last night me and a few others went to the bar in Silver City and played darts and and drank till they closed. We all had a fun time for a bunch that are not real dart players!
Doing laundry and gotta do some reading today yet so gonna wish you a beautiful day and get my booty in gear. HUGS to ya! Love , A.K.
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