Chicago

So I went to Chicago this weekend, which was such an adventure that I don't even know where to begin. I was originally planning to catch the 10:30pm Megabus (some new bus service that happens to have a route b/w Minneapolis and Chicago) but then my work plans got shifted around so that I would have been able to leave early and catch the 4pm bus. Unfortunately, when I went online to book my ticket, all the Friday buses were sold out so I had a mad rush at the last minute to try to find transportation to Chicago. I checked Amtrak which wasn't a primary option mainly b/c they leave from St. Paul instead of Minneapolis (and they cost 4 times as much), but it didn't matter anyway b/c they only have one train to Chicago daily and it left at 7:50am. Great. So in a last ditch effort, I checked Greyhound. Well, here's what I have to say about Greyhound: it's old faithful b/c they sure enough had seats available, but then again you have to wonder WHY they still have seats left. I haven't rode on a Greyhound bus in years and when I did it was usually a 4 hour trip to or from DC so I had no idea what to expect for the 8.5 hour ride to Chicago.
My bus was scheduled to leave at 9:20pm so I called myself getting there a half hour early to get a good spot in line...yeah, right. When I got there, the line was already the full width of the station, and I had to get on line all the way in the back behind at least a good 40 people. Looking around, I felt very underprepared - everyone had big ole pillows (ie. the ones you put on your bed, not neck pillows or anything), blankets, fleece sweaters. Ummm, yeah, I had a little wool jacket, an iPod and a Sudoku book. Around 9:15, they finally decided to board the bus, then halfway through the line a lightbulb must have gone off and they realized that there were more people on line than seats on the bus (I could've told them that from first glance). So then they had to get a second bus, and they put the rest of us on the second bus. The good thing was that the second bus was not quite as full so many of us had seats next to us all to ourselves. The bad side was that the first bus left on time, and ours got delayed an hour. The driver said something about other buses that broke down so we had to wait for them (I assume it was b/c people on those buses were planning to transfer to ours for the rest of their trip). So, after the driver makes his announcement about the bus being delayed (we were already on the bus at this point) and gives us the option of waiting on the bus or in the terminal, this random girl sitting about two full seats in front of me turns and asks me "what did he say???" Ok, she was sitting a full TWO seats in front of me, closer to the driver than I was. I just looked at her with that look I get when I really want to say "really? pay attention!!!" but being the nice person that I am I repeated what he said. Then she proceeds to explain to me how she is supposed to transfer to another bus in Chicago. At this point I started reflecting on how they say us New Yorkers are so mean. I can almost see the point b/c my first thought was "why are you talking to me???" Does that make me mean? Ok, maybe a little. But really, I was thinking "sounds like a personal problem - I am not the Greyhound dispatcher so why are you telling me?" When she continued staring in my face, I finally told her she should check how much time she had b/w her buses to see if she would realistically make it (really, I don't think I should have had to tell her something that seems so obvious). She pulls out her ticket then reports back to me "I only have an hour and 15 minutes." Ok, you do the math. I just gave her the dumb look again. I was tired of hand holding. Finally, she gets up and says "I think I'm going to get off the bus and check." Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, jackpot!...my goodness - the elevator goes up but doesn't quite come back down. I took that as my opportunity to reach into my bag and pull out my iPod headphones. But apparently, I wasn't quick enough. The guy in front of me turns around and says "excuse me, can you help me? What are all these tickets? Why did they give me so many tickets?" Here we go again. I gave him the dumb look but he didn't seem to catch on. Finally, I leaned forward and looked at the ticket. It clearly stated Chicago as the departure location and some other place as the destination. So I asked him if he was going past Chicago (duh!) and when he said yes I explained to him that he needed the ticket to get on the next bus from Chicago to his final destination. He thanked me about ten times. At this point, I made the mad dash to put the iPod headphones on and zoned out.
We finally left around 10:30pm, and made a quick stop in St. Paul. On the ride though, I had to listen to this g-fab lady cussing her man out on her cell phone loud enough for the entire bus to hear. And yes, she kept this up for the entire 20 minute ride to St. Paul. And yes, I could still hear her over my iPod. Thankfully, she got off in St. Paul. The rest of the ride was quiet - most people went to sleep and I had the seat next to me free so I just curled up and drifted off to la la land. That is, until about 2 hours outside of Chicago when we hit rain and the bus started leaking. Yeah. I woke up and touched my head and thought "why is my head wet?" I looked up and didn't see any leak. But then I felt it again about a minute later. I reached over and felt my bag on the seat next to me and the back of it was soaked. That's when I noticed the leak dripping over the seat next to me. So I moved further back into my seat. But then I felt the drip again. This time I looked up and noticed that I was sitting underneath the air conditioner. The guy in front of me moved over too b/c his window seat was leaking so I came to the conclusion that the window seats were leaking b/c of the rain and my seat was leaking b/c of the air conditioner. Either way, I did not pay to ride on a leaky bus. I was so through at that point that I just shifted until I found a spot where I wouldn't get leaked on and rode it out until I got to Chicago.
I got to Chicago around 7am, and hopped into a cab to my friend Kristen's apartment. I told the driver where I was going, and almost immediately he responded "are you registered to vote?" I thought, "what the heck does me being registered to vote have to do with driving me to the South loop?" I responded that I was. Then he says "oh good, b/c if you weren't I was going to have to put you out my cab." Really? Me, being the sarcastic person I can be sometimes, responded "isn't it a little early to be putting people out of your cab?" Why did I say that? He began his whole soliloquy about how I'd be surprised how many people are not registered, and how every vote counts, and blah, blah, blah. It was way too much for 7am. I just zoned out (yes, notice how I have a habit of doing that).
That being said, overall my Chicago visit was great. Yeah, it rained the entire weekend and it was pretty gross weather wise, but I got to hang out with Kristen, shop on State street, check out some new Chi-town spots, catch up with my line sister Heather, and even have brunch Sunday morning with my cousins who I hadn't seen in at least three years! So it was well worth the trip. My friend Meghan and my other LSs Tasha and Shayla didn't make it out with us Saturday night which was disappointing b/c I haven't seen my LSs in ages and Meg and I usually catch up at Black MBA which I'm not going to this year. But I did speak to them on the phone and they are all at the top of my list for my next Chi-town visit (which hopefully won't be another 3 years from now). Thankfully, my ride back to Minneapolis was on the Megabus, which for the record is WAY nicer than Greyhound. First of all, they have seatbelts (can we say, safety?), their buses are double deckers, they have flat screen televisions, the drivers don't take no nonsense, and overall it was just way more comfortable. The people were also a little less questionable. There were a lot of students, professionals and older women in particular. I sat next to this older black woman who was very nice. We chatted for a good part of the trip and I feel like she told me her entire life story. She is from Chicago and moved to Minneapolis to work as a dean for an online university based here. We got started talking about church and she invited me to come to church with her and also gave me some inside scoop on a few other churches I'm considering visiting here (much needed so I appreciated it). She was very nice and all and we exchanged contact information, however when we got close to Minneapolis she offered to drive me home. Nice or not, I don't do rides in cars with strangers so I had to decline. She kept insisting b/c she said her daughter is my age and she wouldn't want her daughter walking home late at night but I told her it wasn't a long walk and I'd be fine. She was nice and all but so are axe murderers before they kill you, lol. Since it was pretty late though, I called my mom and stayed on the phone with her during my 20 minute walk home which was actually pretty painless since downtown was alive and kicking for a Sunday night. There were a ton of people out hitting up clubs that I didn't even know existed - I guess I need to get out more.
So today was back to work, and it was busy. I'm preparing for my first presentation for my project on Thursday and I've got a shell of a presentation but I'm not nearly where I would like to be. Me and the other two girls training in Apparel & Accessories (A&A) left around 4 to go competitive shopping and I discovered the world of Maple Grove, MN. It was like shopping heaven. It's an outdoor "mall" (really it's just a big community of stores), which will probably not see me much in the winter but has a lot of stores that I didn't think existed in the Twin Cities. Most exciting of all, there is a PF Changs! Ok, I'm in love with the banana spring rolls at PF Changs so that just made my entire month. There are also a lot of other restaurants up there that I've never even heard of or been to so I can pretty much guarantee I'll be back. If any of you ever come visit me here (I know there are about two of you who will) we will definitely go there - it's one of the nicer places I've seen her and personally I think it beats Mall of America any day.
Ok, I feel like I've written a ton so I'm checking out for now. Since I haven't fully bonded with my television, I'm about to eat and conk out in front of the tv. Later!