adventures in commuting

As you may or may not know, I usually take the train to work on Fridays. Some people ask me why I don't take the train every day. But believe it or not, it takes waaaay longer to get to work via train than it does by car. Yes, even on Fridays. But I do the train thing on Fridays for two reasons. 1) to save my car a little mileage in its old age, and 2) 'cause my coworkers and I often make it a "beer train." However, if there is one instance I can cite to support my opinion that driving can be far easier and less stressful than taking the train, it is last Friday.

About a half hour before quittin' time on Friday, I got an e-mail from a coworker asking if anyone wanted to take the early shuttle and go grab some beer before the train arrived. Okay, let me back up a little and explain the shuttle thing real quick. At around the 4:00 hour, there are two shuttles that leave work headed for the train station at Arlington Park. The one at 4:10 gets to the station in time for commuters to catch the outbound train, and the 4:26 shuttle gets people there in time to catch the inbound train. (Note: there used to only be one shuttle, at 4:10, so the inbound commuters would have quite a long wait at the station - another reason for my initial hesitation to take the train every day) Anyhoo, Nilsa, the coworker, wanted to take the 4:10 shuttle, and have the very accomodating bus driver drop us off at the liquor store next to Arlington Park, where we'd buy our beer, then hoof it back over to the station. I was the only one who was done with my work for the day and didn't need that extra 15 minutes to finish up, so I agreed to go along.

We met up in the Post 1 lobby where the shuttle picks us up. It was kind of yucky outside, so we stayed inside and watched for the bus to arrive. It didn't. There was a very nervous man in the lobby making all sorts of phone calls to Laidlaw, and to our company's other location, trying to figure out where the bus was. Since he was trying to make the outbound train, we could understand his nervousness, but he was freakin' everyone out! Seriously! Turned out there was a substitute bus driver that day and she didn't know where she was going or what her schedule was, so she was running very late. Nervous Guy and a couple other commuters ended up getting rides to the station so they could make their train. Since Nilsa and I were in no hurry, we waited a few more minutes to see if the bus would come. When it became evident that it wasn't coming, we decided to take another coworker up on his offer to drive us to the liquor store ... ahem, I mean, the train station. :) Actually, he WAS nice enough to drop us off at the liquor store, so we were in pretty good shape. We bought our drinks (only for ourselves, tee hee), and walked back to the station in plenty of time to make the inbound train. However, it was beginning to rain harder as we walked, and even though we had umbrellas, we were grateful for the shelters at the stop. There was a very interesting group of people huddled under the shelter who were headed into the city for some kind of event, and who were very amused by our drinks concealed in paper bags. Of course, they had a whole cooler full of booze, so who were they to talk? :)

So it got closer and closer to the time the train was supposed to arrive, and we saw no bus arriving from work with the rest of our friends and coworkers. Were they going to make it in time? Would the sub bus driver know where she was going? Suddenly, in the distance, we saw the giant headlight of the train approaching the station. Just about the same time, the bus arrived! But see, the thing about the Arlington Park station is that the drop off location is on the opposite side of the tracks as the platform you need to be on to catch the inbound train. So, needless to say, the bus came to a screeching halt, and out came a steady stream of my coworkers RUNNING AT FULL SPEED to cross the tracks in time to 1) catch the train, and 2) not get HIT by the train. Thankfully, all made it across in time and in one piece ... but just barely. I heard one of them say as we boarded the train, "If the bus driver hadn't gone through that yellow light, we wouldn't have made it!" Also, keep in mind that by this time, the rain was coming down pretty hard.

Cut to a few stops down the line, when the train came to a stop somewhere just after the Mount Prospect stop, and we didn't know why. In answer to our question, the conductor got on the intercom and announced that the train wass stopping because of a tornado warning, they didn't know when they'd be able to get moving again, and that we should all be patient because this was for our own safety. Oh, wonderful. We're stopped on the tracks for our SAFETY in a train that would be shredded to pieces were a tornado to actually hit it. At this point, Nilsa and I were very glad we had our beers, and the people with the cooler full of liquor, who were sitting right above us, were very glad they had that cooler full of liquor. I believe we were stopped on the tracks for about 45 minutes, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't that long. But when you're trying to get home after work and start your weekend, it's an eternity. I sent text messages, I talked on the phone, I drank my beer and joked around with fellow passengers. I even attempted to read the book I had with me (I think I only read a page). Meanwhile, Mother Nature was rearing her ugly head outside. It rained, it hailed, it rained some more. We DID NOT get hit by a tornado, and as far as I know, no one in the vicinity did either. So that was good. The delay in my commute was not so good.

FINALLY we started moving. We were a bit concerned that the train might skip some stops to get itself back on schedule, but luckily, it made all scheduled stops, so there weren't any further delays. HOWEVER, the minute we arrived at the Irving Park stop was the same minute that Ma Nature decided to release her bladder. So of course, the absolute worst five minutes of this storm were the five minutes when I was walking from the train to my car. I was incredibly thankful for my Nightmare Before Christmas umbrella. Or at least my upper half was. From the waist down, I was completely drenched. To the skin. Even through my shoes and socks. I can honestly say that I've never been outside during a worse downpour. The thunder cracked directly overhead at one point and literally stopped me in my tracks. And of course, in keeping with the theme, the rain let up dramatically as soon as I got in my car.

For the last leg of my journey, I had to make a stop at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. It was mighty embarrassing sloshing down the aisles at CVS while everyone else who had been outside was only mildly damp, because they had the common sense (and good luck) to NOT be outside during the worst of the downpour.

But anyway, I got home. That's the point, right?

In conclusion, it's those kinds of days that make you appreciate the days when commuting goes smoothly. But it's also those kinds of days that make for really fun blog posts. :) It was an adventure.