Today, November 8, 2008, is the first truly cold day of the winter that, plus posting on this blog, has me thinking of my first winter in Chicago in 2000. I am from the West Coast and I could not believe how cold it was here. I was truly shocked and surprised because I didn't know that it could get that cold outside of the North Pole. I remember one night waiting for the bus near the lake after working a fancy holiday party at a fancy house on Lake Shore. Somehow, serving food to people who had hired a bartender, server and piano player for a party of 10 people and then walking out to wait and wait and wait in the freezing cold, made the cold worse. They were literally sitting cozily around the fire and there the bartender and I were, waiting for the Sheridan bus in the howling wind, waiting for a bus that felt like it was never going to come.
Today I found a quote online from a University of Chicago student who was working in Antarctica that same week in December 2000. She said, "The more I hear about the weather in Chicago, the more guilty I feel about being away in Antarctica. Reports include bone-chilling temperatures combined with lots and lots of snow."
Finding that quote today was vindicating. It really was cold, colder than it has been since. I learned several things that winter. One, there are people with more money than they can use and two, layers are really, really important and three) never wait for the Sheridan bus. It never does come.
Serena! How fascinating that you found the quote by a stranger, who happened to be working in the same time?!!! This kind of thing makes me realize again, how small the world really is!
I was waiting for the bus 66 on Larabee and i thought I could die, because it was like 9.30 pm and everyone seemed to be driving but me.
I sometimes take this too personally, but I really do think buses and I don't get along. I am always waiting..
tips on how you can make
your public transit experiences
more bearable and even enjoyable!
let's enjoy it if we can't avoid it: How to enjoy your CTA rides
i hate riding buses and trains.
I hate it so much.
But it is an inevitable part of my life that I have embrace every day.
I used to own a car-it was a red sports car, too- and I drove everywhere. Everywhere. Since I moved to the city of Chicago,
I started taking buses and trains.
What I hate most about riding CTA is the waiting part. I hate waiting at the bus stop or at the train station. I feel helpless, restless and powerless. Another thing I don't like about it is sharing the space. There is no room for privacy. The ear plugs and books are the only means of defining my space but even then, it gets constantly interrupted.
I don't know if anyone else hates riding buses and trains, but
I decided to create this blog where people can share their experiences on the CTA, or/and at the bus/train stops. I hope to share few tips that I discovered to make the trips more bearable or even enjoyable, sometimes.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, stories, pictures, videos, whatever, here. It is the very first blog I have ever created so I feel a little vulnerable here :)
2 comments:
Jane,
Today, November 8, 2008, is the first truly cold day of the winter that, plus posting on this blog, has me thinking of my first winter in Chicago in 2000. I am from the West Coast and I could not believe how cold it was here. I was truly shocked and surprised because I didn't know that it could get that cold outside of the North Pole. I remember one night waiting for the bus near the lake after working a fancy holiday party at a fancy house on Lake Shore. Somehow, serving food to people who had hired a bartender, server and piano player for a party of 10 people and then walking out to wait and wait and wait in the freezing cold, made the cold worse. They were literally sitting cozily around the fire and there the bartender and I were, waiting for the Sheridan bus in the howling wind, waiting for a bus that felt like it was never going to come.
Today I found a quote online from a University of Chicago student who was working in Antarctica that same week in December 2000. She said, "The more I hear about the weather in Chicago, the more guilty I feel about being away in Antarctica. Reports include bone-chilling temperatures combined with lots and lots of snow."
Finding that quote today was vindicating. It really was cold, colder than it has been since. I learned several things that winter. One, there are people with more money than they can use and two, layers are really, really important and three) never wait for the Sheridan bus. It never does come.
Serena!
How fascinating that you found the quote by a stranger, who happened to be working in the same time?!!! This kind of thing makes me realize again, how small the world really is!
I was waiting for the bus 66 on Larabee and i thought I could die, because it was like 9.30 pm and everyone seemed to be driving but me.
I sometimes take this too personally, but I really do think buses and I don't get along. I am always waiting..
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