Trains (and where they take you)

I moved to Chicago in the summer of 2006 and quickly discovered a host of things that I was newly afraid of that had never crossed my mind before. One was pigeons. They are dirty, scary little rats with wings and if you work in the loop they are like mini, dive bombing airplanes. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind their flight patterns except to converge directly towards your head in large numbers.

The second thing I found myself newly frightened of was the train. I came from a city with a shabby public transportation system that I hadn't ridden in about a decade. My hometown is a car and bike city so that was my familiar territory, well the car part at least. My only other experience with mass public transpo was in DC - where the Metro is clean, color coordinated and relatively easy to understand after the first ride or two.

So in 2006 I came, dragging everything that I could fit in a four door Ford Taurus and plunked myself right in the heart of Downtown Chicago. I had a sublet that allowed me to walk to work and get the lay of the land while I decided whether or not to call the Windy City my home (and while my job decided whether or not to pay me past August).

My apartment was on the the third floor, which in case you are not familiar with the El system meant I was eye level with the train and all it's noisy, sparking glory. I walked to work under a shower of sparks and amidst the squeals of metal on metal every day. Random water from gods know where dripped randomly on my head whenever I was caught under the tracks at a stoplight. It was loud. It was intimidating. And I never wanted to have to ride it.

Lucky for me I was blessed with a friend that has an amazing heart, an unlimited amount of patience, and a car. For the first few weeks she would drive downtown to pick me up, take me out to neighborhoods that at least had a semblance of silence and then zip back down Lakeshore to take me home. The first few times it wasn't even brought up that there was any other way for me to escape the concrete jungle of the loop. After a while though it started to come up in conversation.... "Well, would it make more sense for me to take the train to you?" I would ask hesitantly..."whatever you are comfortable with" she would reply. I actually admitted the first few times that I was still too afraid to take the train. I had this idea that I would end up going the wrong direction and get horribly lost, never to find my apartment again, and die a miserable quiet death in a back alley somewhere...what can I say I have a writer's imagination.

Finally I worked up the nerve and declared I was taking the train out to her house! For those of you that live in Chicago here comes the fantastic part of this story.....She lives on the Brown line. For those readers unfamiliar with the Chicago El system let me explain. Most El lines run throughout the city with the loop being the mid point. This is where the fear generated that I could end up going the wrong direction and land myself in the middle of nowhere. The brown line on the other hand starts at the loop and runs north. You can not get on the train the wrong way from the loop. And the loop is where I was starting from. It's also somewhat safe to say that out of all the different routes and colors of train lines, the brown line runs along what may be considered the "safer" sections of the city. And to top it off, her house is 3 blocks from the Montrose station. Needless to say, once I did it I felt slightly silly for all the procrastination.

Fast forward - I now ride the train (again the brown line) everyday to and from work. I love my train ride. It's a guaranteed 30 - 45 minutes of wake up time each morning. I'm far enough north that I'm pretty secure in the fact that I will get a seat in the morning and I most definitely never have to watch 3 full trains cruise by until there is spot for me. At night it's a little trickier, but leaving at 4:30 helps me get a seat probably greater than 50% of the time which is okay by me. I love not driving, hell I even plan dates around the train (as I no longer own that trusty four door Ford).

My train at night is the "Brown Line to Kimball" and my stop is three stops before the much mentioned Kimball. I think it's important to know where your public transportation goes so last night as my stop rolled up and the doors opened to the wintry evening I stayed planted in my plastic seat. I rode all the way out to the end of the line, checked out the turnabout (which made me think of a train graveyard...not sure why) and slipped out the doors as the conductor announced end of the line, everybody off. I walked across the platform into the waiting train next to me with the "Loop" sign securely in place and headed back south. Three stops later at my familiar stop I headed out the doors and into the night. How far I've come from those early days....but I'm still completely afraid of pigeons.