(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Getting home tonight was not an ADVENTUR so much as it was...a Journie. (that's middle English.) (Not really.)

Here is a map for reference:

SOUTH -------------------------------------------------------------------> NORTH
Jackson - Madison - Lake - (A Shit Ton Of Other Stops) - Addison - Sheridan (My stop)

I knew if I tried to get on the El at Lake after going to the chiropractor I would not get a seat, so I played Beat The Train, an old favourite game of mine, where I try to get as far south as I can before a northbound train passes us in the other direction. That did totally work, I got a seat on a northbound train at Jackson and by the time we were back at Lake there were no seats left. So at least I got to sit down as the train started and stopped and started and stopped and had technical difficulties and waited for signal clearance and started and stopped some more.

Finally we get to Addison, the stop before mine and incidentally the stop for Wrigley Stadium, where there is a game tonight that started about twenty minutes ago. And the train driver announces that because of all the delays we will be running express PAST my stop.

So I got out at Addison, and rather than wait for the next train, I decided to walk home through the crowds of Cubs fans (oh how I hate Cubs fans, even though I like the Cubs). It's not a terrible walk, it's just terribly boring.

And now I am home.

And I am very tired.

Comments

[cat-eyed-fox.livejournal.com]

I had a Journie today too (got lost going in lunchtime traffic, trying to get to a Co-Op in downtown), but that's not why I am responding.
Yesterday I finally finished Nameless and it was AMAZING! You're amazing. Beautifully paced, excellent world building, and I loved your characters. You didn't waste time describing everyone, just let the reader supply the faces to these unique characters while each rang out in their own personality. Never once did you use cliches, except to destroy them with your tiny, but brilliant details. I particularly loved how you dealt with the Lucas/Nameless thing. Of course we (the audience) knew, and Narrator Christopher recognizes that, but also manages to tell how he eventually found out and why he refused to believe it at first.
Well done you! Can't wait for more of your Original fic.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you enjoyed Nameless! It's not perfect, but I'm pretty proud of it :) Hopefully my other books will live up to it.

[cat-eyed-fox.livejournal.com]

I should think you'd be proud! You've done something I (and thousands of others) have never been able to; have a story that is finished and good enough to publish.

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

It drives me fucking NUTS when you're already ON the train and then they go, "Oh and if you were hoping to go HERE, you're screwed." Especially when if you had known that back a half-dozen stops you could make other choices like transferring to the brown line at Belmont or something.

Also? At 10:00 last night I was on fairly busy Red Line train and, yeah, the Cubs had just let out. At night, when I don't want to walk through the Less Friendly Than It Used to Be area of Wilson/Broadway, I get off at Sheridan and grab the 151 up to my house. So, Everyone and Their Dog piled on at Addison and then got *all* the Pissed Ever when I tried to shove my way out exactly one stop later. Like it's my fault they all climbed on right before I needed to get off. Gr.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Occasionally I get really excited, like when we run express TO my stop in the mornings, but yeah, most of the time it's like REALLY, ASSHAT?

Mostly unrelated to your 151 horror story, but it always deeply impresses me that you have mastered the 151. I've ridden it twice and it terrifies me with its randomness.

[evil-girraffe.livejournal.com]

I always used to have fun on weekends watching drunken cubs fans get lost and wander into boytown :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

The proximity of Wrigley to the Gayborhood never fails to amuse me :D

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

There's definitely something to be said for living out past the end of the brown line, and that thing is that since Kimball's the brown's maintenance yard, the trains HAVE to go there anyway, even when they're, like, on fire or whateverthehell was wrong this one night mine ran express nearly all the way along after a looong delay at the Mart...

[chandri.livejournal.com]

Upside: Cubs fans didn't spend their evening flipping cars, smashing storefronts, and setting your downtown on fire? *ashamed of own city*

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Nah, that's expected when you win the Stanley Cup! Practically tradition :D

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

Vancouver rioted because we lost - Boston didn't riot because they didn't allow fans to gather and watch downtown. Interesting response though - tons of people are coming together now to a) clean up b) share photos and videos of the looters/firesetters/vandals so the police can go after them

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ohhh I see. I had reports of Boston that seemed chaotic too.

Canadians, you guys do EVERYTHING backwards :D

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

I'm near Vancouver, so the news here is PACKED with OMG RIOT!! stories and pics. I had a quick look at CNN to see what happened in Boston, couldn't find anything much. Such a shame. Maybe if Vancouver got to the finals more than 3 times in 40 years we wouldn't go crazy.

[in-a-tizzy.livejournal.com]

If my facebook newsfeed is anything to go by Bruins fans were drunk, happy and at home. That last part is key.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they probably would have rioted if they'd won, too. Crazy hooligans. I hope people remember this the next time they whine about the authorities making Vancouver a 'no fun city.' Angry, angry, angry.

I do like the crowdsourced cleanup and retribution though. That's the Vancouver I know and love.

[in-a-tizzy.livejournal.com]

Allowing people to gather downtown was extra baffling because this happened last time. It's what Canucks fans are known for.

[maeritrae.livejournal.com]

You say Journie, I picture a wandering minstrel singing Don't Stop Believing.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHA.

*strums lute* Just a small-town giiiiirlllllll...she doth live in a LONELY WOOOOOORLD....

[vivichick.livejournal.com]

crap. Now *I'm* picturing it.

[maeritrae.livejournal.com]

He took a midnight cart going to AD-DIS-SON

[ataralas.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's the nice thing about living within walking distance of the end of the line. It's not my preferred stop—slightly faster if I get off at the penultimate stop when the train is making all stops. But express train? Bring it on.

And now I miss NYC. Where the express trains are built in. :(

[vivichick.livejournal.com]

Here's something that might make your day more interesting :)
I have a steampunk/cosplay inclined friend who found this "Heiress and Adventuress" and her shop, Lady Clankington's Cabinet of Carnal Curiosities.
http://www.littledeathray.com/

Her explanation here ( http://www.littledeathray.com/infernal-devices/ ), is worth a read even if you are not in the market for an "infernal device".

Cracks me up. Quite the artist, she is.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Awww, awesome! Go steampunkers :)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Getting home tonight was not an ADVENTUR so much as it was...a Journie. (that's middle English.) (Not really.)

*twitches* Being a mediaevalist has left me unable to take jokes like that. (I watched the 2007 version of Beowulf the other day and was horrified beyond belief. So many liberties were taken!_

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

That is 100% why I put the "Not really" there -- I knew I would cause pain :D

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Without the disclaimer, I shudder to think what my reaction would have been. :)

In place of journie...

[sophie-spence.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the right word is travail :D

Unrelatedly, my 17yo is explaining to the air that her room reeks of Papa John's garlic sauce because Nobody carried out her trash on Monday as she is walking (empty handed) from her room to the garage where the trash cart is.... Occasionally adolescence does not seem to me to be evolutionarily sound.

Re: In place of journie...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL. Teenagers. It's all the hormones, addles the mind :)

[in-a-tizzy.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Boston I lived at the end of the line. I loved unexpected express trains. Now I live in DC and the Metro doesn't seem to do that.

I associate "beat the train" with getting out of hockey games. The husband and I would do it (back in the days of yore when plebes could afford Caps tickets).

[gershwhen.livejournal.com]

It took me 1.5 hours to go 17 miles tonight because the Tiger's game let out at rush hour. You have my sympathies.... but at least you had someone to drive part of the way. (I got to watch the person in the next car text for 10 miles... the number of near collisions was huge.)

[sanura.livejournal.com]

I finished the second-to-last leg of Journie yesterday. Mpblkhgrblop. 12 hours from Houston to Kansas City, 30 hours (including 5 hours of sleeping in the freezing car in Ohio) from Kansas City to Boston, a day in Boston to put my apartment in the car, 12 hours from Boston to Indiana where we gave up and slept in a motel, 10 hours from there back to KC, where there will be a wedding tomorrow and then we drive the 12 hours back to Houston. So, journey.

But a joy of being in Boston for the last time living there was getting all my recital recordings, the most important of which I have now put on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmRG4IWmLB0

Beware live performances, where anything can happen! But it went pretty well, I think. Feel free to pimp if this pleases you :)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Okay somehow this got lost in the mess of my life, but omg, this is lovely! I am totally going to pimp it out. It sounds so great, really :) And I LOVE the montage you assembled too :)

[sanura.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you! The montage is all photos I took at Mouth Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge; I don't know if you've been, but I bet you'd love it.

[(Anonymous)]

In related news, I can no longer read 'Addison," without mentally adding "And Steele."
Fuck those pretentious essayist bastards.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH I encountered Addison and Steele as an undergrad, so the very first time I went past the Addison stop I had that sensation.