So I've been watching a Christmas Story again. I was doing really well and keeping myself otherwise occupied, and then we got stuck on the train for 8 hours Sunday and I just happened to have a copy with me (it was either that or watch the 2yo in front of me's Spongebob movie 14 times). Now, of course, I'm spouting lines right and left and there's probably no hope for it to stop anytime soon.
Yes, you heard that right, we were stuck on a 3 hour train ride for 8 hours. My Mom and I went to Chicago for the weekend for her birthday (surplise!!!), saw the Blue Man Group, the aquarium, and more of the Mile than we needed to. It snowed 10" while we were there, and we had a fantastic view of it from our hotel room (Hotel Monaco, really cute boutique). Anyway, everything was perfect until we got on the train to come home. I distinctly remember saying to my mother that the southbound train is habitually late, and it could be as late as 9pm before we got home (supposed to arrive at 5:15...this is the train that I *should* encounter every day on my way home from work, but it's always late).
We were 1.5 hours late leaving Union Station due to needing to meet a connecting train for other passengers...on a train that was overbooked. For those of you playing along at home, this means that the people we were waiting on were coming in on a train that was 6 hours late. They should have had 4 hours to putz around the station, etc. Instead they were shuffled onto another train with a horrid destiny, oh, and they didn't have seats available.
So we leave the station a little after 3, and are ALMOST to the Joliet station when we stop to wait on a Metra. No big deal, happens all the time. Right AFTER Joliet, the power went out. As in, no lights, no HEAT, no nothing. We creeped along until we got to Bloomington, where we sat on the tracks for an hour while the engineer tried to get the power to come back on. It did, we left. Well, it came back on for 15 minutes, and at that point we were stuck until Spfld. There was another nightmare with some free snacks they offered, but it's not worth ranting about at this point. We finally made it to SPI around 9:15. Train didn't leave SPI until 10pm (we live a block or two from the tracks outside of town, it's easy to hear).
Moral of the story, if it matters that you're on time, don't take Amtrak. Otherwise we had a great time! My Mom really liked the Blue People, as she calls them, and I was surprised to hear KLF music at the end of their performance. I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the audience who'd ever heard that song before. Rock on :)
Grant Park looked so different from the last time I saw it, but I found the hotel we'll be staying in next August for Lollapalooza. Need to make reservations soon.
I'm finishing up Christmas shopping tonight. I'm down to stocking stuffers and running out of ideas quick, so it shouldn't take long. I'm getting Wife of the Year awards from my coworkers on one of the Russian's gifts. I can't talk about it here, but I think he's really going to like it. I cracked up when I saw it.
2 more working days left this year for me. Ya-freakin-hoo.