Observations on the CTA

I’m normally a drive-one-mile-to-work kind of girl, and depending on traffic in this city, it can sometimes take me less than 7 minutes to get to get there.

On Friday I had a doctor’s appointment downtown, and it was still my winter vacation, so no need to drive and pay eleven dollars to park! I decided to ride the train down with the hubby because he would go to work directly from the appointment anyway. I knew we would be boarding the train at rush hour, and the geek inside of me was a little excited to see how busy the train was on a week day, at rush hour.

So at ten after eight we left the house, bundled in several layers, and descended into the snowy artic air that is Chicago in January. We made the short trek to the train station just north of our apartment, and almost immediately a train pulled up and we boarded. To my disappointment, I wasn’t squeezing into a train like the images you see of commuter trains in India. We actually boarded a fairly empty train, and even got two seats (score!). So the train rolled along and with each stop more and more people boarded. The guy sitting next to me (not hubby), was drinking his morning joe and continuously hacked up a small portion of his lung. I ignored it at first, but then horrible thoughts of how warm the train was, and how tighter and tighter the people were packing in, and I suddenly was convinced I was catching some form of bird flu from the seemingly innocent guy next to me drinking his joe. Belmont! Yessss!!! Only time in my life I was actually happy to switch to the red line.

As red line run 458 pulled up, I couldn’t help but notice that train looked remarkably similar to an image I had seen before… ahhh, the India commuter train! Finally, my image of Chicago rush hour on the train had arrived. We pushed ourselves onto the train car and gingerly grasped something to hang onto. I cleared the image of Bird Flu Man from my head and decided to enjoy this rare workday treat- observing the people of the CTA. This is what I observed:

·      Some people check stocks and social media on their way into work

·      Some people catch up on zzz’s on their way to work… standing up

·      Some people pick their boogers and eat the treasure

·      Some people read books. Really HUGE books. Get a Kindle for your commute!

·      Some people absolutely cannot stand still. And this guy wasn’t a toddler or small child!

·      Some people wear really nice clothes and do not bathe.

And most importantly, I observed that I actually like my short drive (all observations took about 15 minutes to obtain) to school. And I appreciate the fact I do not have to rely on the CTA each and every day. Go take a short morning ride, it’s well worth the observations!