Of Green Rivers and Great Films (March, 2012)

Lacy and Jeff visited for St. Patrick’s Day.  Since I’ve been here and first told Lacy about the dyeing of the Chicago River, she has talked about seeing it.  It is something to see – the way they pour dye out of the boat and the river becomes a brilliant Kelly green.  I had been so excited that they were coming up, not having seen any of my family since I was there at Christmas.

They arrived late Thursday, I picked them up at Midway, and after dropping the bags off we headed to the Hop Haus to see if anyone they had previously met was working and to get a bite to eat.  Friday we were up early looking for new things to do.  One thing I wanted to show them was Union Station, which is beautiful and amazing.  We took the 11 bus, which is the same bus I take most mornings that I ride the train to work, jumped off at Adams, grabbed a Dunkin’ Donut, and walked across the river to the “new” side of the station.

 The South entrance is right by the river, and leads to the food court and Amtrack station.  An escalator or stairs takes you down to the bowels of the station where the trains arrive and leave.  Continuing under Canal Street, you end up in the magnificence that is Union Station.  Lacy and Jeff were duly impressed by the grandeur, and how the trains arrive and leave underneath the main floor of the station.  The biggest thrill, however, was seeing the steps that were part of the movie “The Untouchables”.  It’s one of my favorite movie scenes.

Lacy had not seen, or did not remember, the scene where Elliot Ness and his cohorts confront Al Capone’s gunmen on the marble stairs while a baby carriage slips down step by step to be saved by the cop played by a young Andy Garcia.  Jeff pulled it up on his phone and we watched while at the foot of the staircase, amazed at the actual smallness of the site that looks so spacious on the big screen (or even little screen).  We went up and stood at the same place Kevin Costner stood during the scene, pointing out where the other characters would have been.  In the movie, the use of camera angles makes the staircase look more expansive than it is.  In real life, it’s only maybe 12’-15’ wide.

This makes me wonder about scale in other movies.  I’ve seen pictures of the house used as Tara in “Gone with the Wind”, and it’s a very small place compared to how magnificent it appears in the movie.  The streets of Chicago look much wider in movies like “The Dark Knight”, especially under the El tracks.  I think it would be interesting to be on a movie set while the filming is going on, and then see how the same set appears on film.  Of course, movies make everything larger, more intense, more colorful or bleaker.

But back to the weekend….we next drove out to Oak Park and toured the Frank Lloyd Wright house  and studio.  Interesting, particularly if you’re a fan.  I was intrigued by the various innovations developed by Mr. Wright that became more or less standard in future architecture, such as open floor plans and continuous views to the outside.  He also designed much of the furniture in the house specifically for the space it occupies.  The playroom upstairs had to be a fun place to have as a child – lots of nooks and crannies, built-in benches, and an upper level that could be used for performing plays or just reading privately.

On Saturday, again up and out early for breakfast and the river.  Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, the weather was amazing – warm, sunny, unusual for March.  With such great weather came great crowds of people into downtown.  People so thick we could hardly move around; there were lines to get up and down the steps to the river walk, lines to get across the bridges, lines at every restaurant and bar, Irish or not.  We jumped on the El and headed to Wrigleyville, hoping to find less crowded crowds.  We tried to visit every bar along Clark and did a pretty good job of it.  Eventually, hunger, beer, and walking took their tolls and we headed back to town to rest up for the evening.  Resting up turned into passing out, and we stayed in all evening.  Probably a good choice considering the number of people still milling around the streets having had way too much fun all afternoon.

Sunday was a quiet day.  It started with a grand surprise for me – breakfast at a restaurant Lacy had found online called “The Southern”.  Grits, country ham, gravy and the like.  Very good if not quite truly southern, and a bit pricey.  Sitting on the patio enjoying the sun and good food was a great start to the day, and I really was tickled by the whole surprise of it.  How “Lacy” it was to actually look for a place to take me serving southern food.  She knows how I love my grits.

I always have so much fun when family or friends visit, and have so much sadness when they go.  I love sharing this city with them but the heartstrings pull every time they leave.  I want them here always, to share in the grand adventure, to discover with me the new things yet to see and do, and to just surround me with the love that is family and friends.  Ah, well, we still have times to come, and then I’ll be back home, at times wishing I were here in Chicago.  Maybe I should try another adventure sometime down the road.  I mean, why limit myself (and my family) to one great city when there is so much of the world to see?

Adventures on the Rails (From February 2012)

I realize that there are still, after almost 2 years, so many new things to see and do here in Chicago, but sometimes I am just amazed when I stumble upon a new thing that I really like and will miss when I don’t have access to it any more.  My latest is the commuter train.

The company I work for moved its corporate, and division, offices to a huge, shiny, new/old “campus” late last year.  I say new/old because it was formerly the offices of another large company, abandoned during the recession, and purchased by Navistar for a sweet price.  After months of renovations, people started moving in last November, and continued through January, until the place filled up almost to capacity.  That might sound simple, but you have to understand – this place consists of 9 buildings, 5 which are older, 3-story (actually 4-story as there is a lower level underground) office spaces, each holding hundreds of workers, 3 that make up the newer “front” buildings, glass and steel modern constructions with a huge, ugly front feature that resembles an enormous satellite dish, and one “building” underground.

In the middle of all these buildings is a large pond – large enough that I could actually call it a lake.  Glassed-in walkways that look like hamster tubes over the pond connect buildings 5 and 8 to 1, where the cafeteria and training rooms are.  There are Starbucks and Red Mango “break” areas which threaten to break us all who have become addicted to the afternoon coffee or smoothie break.  There are 2 fitness centers that offer classes throughout the day, open areas for informal exchanges of ideas (meetings), and the whole place is designed to encourage collaborative thinking among the various divisions and departments of the company.

The office is really nice, although many managers have had to adjust to cubicles or un-ceilinged offices, and for those of us that live in the actual Chicago area, our commute has doubled.  To help alleviate the pain of commuting, the company arranged with the suburb bus service to provide a pick-up/drop-off service between local train stations and the office.

At first I thought taking the train to work would be too expensive and time-consuming, but once the first real snow was forecast on a Friday, threatening my ability to drive from work without extreme anxiety, I checked into what would be involved in becoming a Metra commuter.  After some research, I found the nearest bus to my house that would deposit me at Union Station, where the train to Lisle would depart.  A 3-block walk at 6:30 a.m. is doable, and in the evening, there’s a stop only a block away.  Sweet.

Next was the train schedule and price.  My bad luck is that the rates were increasing as of February 1, so I only had a couple of weeks to enjoy the lower price.  Still, I could get a monthly, unlimited pass for about what it would cost in gas to drive back and forth 5 days a week.  The cost of the bus on each end morning and evening was a small addition, not much more than the toll for the toll-road I had to take when driving.

So far, so good, but then I realized that taking the train limited me to a pretty strict time table.  Getting to work in the morning was not the problem – I had the option of a 6:30 (if I really had insomnia), 7:01, or 7:20 train out, and they were all express, which meant I would have only a 30-minute ride.  In the evening, not so great.  The bus pick-up at the office was a choice of 4:40 or 5:15, to catch a 5:08 train to the city that was also express, or to catch a 5:40 train that stopped at every possible place between Lisle and Union Station, taking just over an hour.  Should I have a need to stay at work past 5:15, someone would have to drive me to the station to catch a 6:40 train, and if I missed that, the next train was not until 8:40.  Seems most people keep regular 9-5 work hours.  At my office, a 5:30 meeting is not out of the question, and when you drive, is not a problem.

Okay, so I could manage the “early” day most of the time, but what about those long days during quarter-end close, or when there was a meeting, or training offsite, or whatever??  Well, I’d just have to drive some days, which makes the monthly pass not so desirable.  My best option is a 10-ride pass which is slightly discounted from pay-as-you-go tickets.  This would allow me to train it 2-3 days a week, and drive the rest, at a reasonable cost.  Especially considering the near $5 price of gas in Chicago.

That’s a lot of explaining to say how I became a real city-fied commuter.  And I have found a way to make my day a little less stressful by having an hour of quiet time, albeit bumpy and swaying at times because those express trains move pretty fast.  I can read, play on my ipad, or just stare out the window.  When it gets warmer and the days are longer, I can actually walk from home to Union Station, and back, and save the bus fare along with getting exercise and more relax time (I find walking very relaxing).

I’ve also had an excuse to explore Union Station and the surrounding area West of the river, which I had not yet done.  Union Station is in itself a delight to see.  Built in the early 1900’s, it’s grand hall is magnificent – open, grand, with a huge vaulted skylight atop the 100’ expanse to the ceiling.  The marble staircases and carvings and statues surrounding the hall are beautiful, and the layout is a real architectural achievement.  The station extends underneath the street and buildings to the actual train tracks, which enter both north and south of the station, but do not join.  The clanging of the trains as they enter the station takes you back to a time when train travel was more commonplace.  You can imagine the porters and the shouts of “all aboard”, and of course the black coal dust that probably covered everything.

Nowadays, there’s an annoying voice continually calling out the track numbers, which I guess is for the benefit of blind passengers.  As you walk past each track entrance, you hear “track number 2, track number 2”, then “track number 4” and on and on.  You also don’t want to be caught at an entrance when a train arrives as you’re likely to be mowed over by the crowds coming off the trains from the suburbs.  But getting on the train car, flipping the seat to your desired direction, and settling in for a 30-minute read, or nap, or reverie, is a now welcome part of my day, 2 or 3 days each week.  I’ve come to know some of my fellow commuters as we share the bus to the office, or wait outside the office in the afternoon.

Driving is generally close to an hour each way, sometimes more, rarely less.  Taking the train usually is a about an hour twenty, but I can’t read while driving, or play euchre with an imaginary partner, or just close my eyes and relax.  The cost is roughly the same either way, and the excuse of taking the train forces an early day which is very nice.  Traffic may be laughably light in Huntsville compared to here, but if I could, I think I’d take the train at least occasionally should it be an option.  Of course, it will never be an option in Huntsville, and it’s just another thing to add to the list of “what I will miss” when I leave here.  That and having Starbucks right there in the office.

Bad Lynn

Yes, I've been badly behind in documenting my adventures in Chicagoland, but I do have a couple of entries that I wrote some time back and need to add.  It's not that the adventure is less so, or that I've become bored with either Chicago or writing, but I've been bad.  For a long time - at least a couple of years, I've not been able to read.  I've pretty much always had a book going, usually switching from an "easy" read to something requiring more thought and concentration.  For some time, however, I've not been able to get into a book, or to finish one, which is unlike me.  Even if I didn't particularly enjoy a book, I would finish it because not doing so seemed disrespectful of the author's effort.

A couple of months ago, a co-worker told me she was reading a series that a friend had recommended, and she felt almost silly about doing it because the books were marketed as "young adult", meaning teenagers.  But, she said, the books were so good she couldn't put them down, and was now on the third and last of the series.  I ran across the first one in Target one day, and thought why not give it a try?  I was immediately hooked, and continued to finish that one and buy the 2nd.  By the time I was into the 2nd book, I heard about the movie.  Hugely anticipated by the world of "hunger games" enthusiasts, a movie on the first book was imminent.  Yep, I was reading the hunger games series, and deeply engrossed by the story and the writing.

I've never read a "young adult" series of books; never tried Harry Potter, though I've seen all the movies, or the vampire-werewolf series that also became movies, though I did see the first installment of that.  There seems to be a huge market for books geared toward teen angst and adventure, which I think is great as it encourages reading, and forming the habit of reading.  With the advent of video everything, I feared reading was going the way of big gas-guzzling, steel-bodied vehicles.  But just like monster SUV's have maintained a fan base, reading is still alive and well among all age groups, even if it might be via a tablet, which is not a paper tablet but an electronic one.

I have an ipad, and I have books on it, mostly for convenience of transport (on the train, or plane), but there is still something satisfying about holding bound paper pages and flipping eagerly through them as you sink yourself into the fantasy world of whatever you happen to be reading.  There's something about a library; a bookshelf filled with various sizes and titles and to say "I've read them all".  I'm glad reading is still going strong, but something inside me dies a little each time I see a kindle, or nook, or even when I pick up my ipad and tap to turn the page.  I truly hope that "real" books never become completely passe', and that the futuristic films showing people reminiscing about the time when books were on something called paper never really happens.  But if it does, at least reading will not be something that goes the way of 8-track tapes.

I'm glad that I've been able to rediscover the joy of a good book, even if it does take time away from my little blog, or the quilt I started, or many other things I had been doing instead of reading.  But without writing, there is no reading, and if I'm really going to someday produce an actual book, or at least, a story, to be published and read by others, I have to practice writing instead of just sinking into someone else's.

Bad Lynn is not really bad, it's just that there are so many fun things to do, and those things take up time that is short to begin with.  Spending Sunday afternoon on the sofa engrossed in a good story is not really bad - it just takes away from things I feel I should be doing, or things I would do if I weren't so darned engrossed in what happens to Katniss and Peeta.  If you don't know them, I highly endorse reading "The Hunger Games" to find out.