PublicTransit {TOP TEN}

I hail from the best city in the world. I don't even need to include the city's name now that I've qualified it, but to avoid confusion, I'll just go ahead and show you a picture, courtesy of one of my favorite places in the city, owned by two of my favorite people in the city, Jeff and Randy Vines.


Yep, Saint Louis. My home. In a later post maybe I'll focus more on Saint Louis. But today's post is about public transportation. Not an academic study I spent months writing for my Master's Thesis ... not even a passionate citizen's perspective about how Saint Louis needs to invest more in public transportation ... not even a list of jokes about the shape the neighborhoods of Saint Louis make ... no, my friends, this post is simply a TOP TEN list of the things I love about public transportation. Granted, now that I work in a city where I take the L to work every morning and evening, I'm mostly referring to my experience in Chicago. But, no, this isn't a Saint Louis vs. Chicago article either. Although, Saint Louis wins. Anyhow, TOP TEN, here they are:

1. VITAMIN D
From my apartment to where I step onto the train, I average a 7 minute walk {sample size ~40 mornings}. From my train's stop to my office, I've actually never timed. Yes, I've timed the other one. Well, I assume the second walk is like 30 seconds. So I'll exclude that one. The combined 14 minutes [to work / home from work] I spend walking most every day not only counts as my daily exercise, but has this ginger only 6 minutes away from my personal doctor's recommended daily dose of sun. Jenna [aforementioned personal doctor who also happens to be my best friend and Facebook wife] knows how strange I can be about taking medicine, so she tries to MAKE HEALTH FUN and give me ways I don't have to take a pill to stay / get healthy. She's really the greatest. But that's a blog post for another time ;).


2. NOTE ART

Yes, I'm calling this art. I'm a daily reader of my weekly subscription to Advertising Age, and I'm also an avid note-taker. One guy I dated called me writing pack rat. Or something more creative probably. Point is, I take notes in the margin of almost everything I read. At first I just tried to tolerate the bumpy rides that make it difficult to take notes. Then I decided I could learn to work WITH the bumps. Finally, though, I've given up and just embrace the sloppy marginal notes I may someday read through as ART. 


3. EAVESDROPPING

When I'm not using the best literature of our day as my muse for artistic masterpieces, I'm creepily observing everything that goes on around me. Mostly, I'm trying to read the texts post-one-night-standers hesitate to send to that guy / girl from last night in hopes to reassure them that, "I never do anything like this" ... but when those bed heads aren't around, I just love observing every person around me. Often this uncomfortable staring leads to forced conversation, but when they don't notice me, I find myself creating life stories of these people during the two or three stops we share each morning. Sometimes these stories are so believable that I wonder how I'd react if I actually got to know some of these people and found out I had them all wrong. I think I'd probably just continue believing the story I created for them. 

4. COMPETITION
As soon as I get to my stop, the very people my mind writes these biographies about quickly take on new character plots as ... my competition. Although I'm not in New York, that piano staircase thing - part of the Volkswagon Fun Theory {great idea, btw} - has me wishing I were there, as I race up the stairs every morning. In my mind, I am both making sweet sweet music AND basically setting Olympic running records every morning. Mostly, I just try to beat everyone else off the L so I don't have to hurdle over them. I haven't been training for that event. Badum ching?

Oh - funny thing about this competition thing ... I also make fun of everyone I see running to catch a train. People running in business clothes just look so silly, don't they? Well, I feel like running up the stairs helps bring me good karma in some way, as I assume there's some mid-twenties-professional-wanna-be making fun of me for my awkward business lady run somewhere.


5. HOT LAVA
Another sort of game I've created for myself is this sort of public transit-version of HOT LAVA {remember when you were a kid? Couch cushions are your only savior against the floor that has become hot lava!} where everything everyone else has touched is the hot lava that will kill me. Basically, I try to think of creative ways to avoid ever touching anything on the L. And I'm not even a germaphobe. I eat off the floor all.the.time. Good for my immune system. But I've seen too many hand-coughers here to feel ok touching anything these Chicagoans touch. And besides, HOT LAVA is a great morning pick-me-up to prepare me for my stair race.
6. fRiENdLS
I just made this up. They don't know I call them this. But I think of some of the people I notice every day as my sort of .... friends on the L, or fRiENdLs. The super passionate worker at my first stop, who reminds everyone every 20 seconds that the train is on its way makes some of my most miserable mornings {last week, for example, when I spilled coffee on myself / left my keys on my table / forgot an umbrella and walked in the rain} worth pushing through. Then there was this other lady who started talking to me and this fancy business man one afternoon. She didn't stop chatting on about godknowswhat from the moment we stepped onto the train with her until the business man and I exited. He didn't know her either. We both got a kick out of her ability to share 50 years of information in a 15 minute time slot.

7. OUTTA-TOWN-MOMS / CAMP COUNSELORS
They.love.doing.headcounts. One of these days I am going to hide one of the kids whose head needs-uh-counting. Right, that's the same day I'll be asked to leave and never come back. At least not within 50 feet. 




8. CTA MAP
One time I saw a torn CTA MAP fall down. I picked it up. I worried it was a federal offense to keep it. So I asked this cute little man wearing a CTA uniform of some sort if I could keep it. At first he said I wasn't allowed to. Then I begged him. Then he let me have it. Now I have a torn CTA MAP that I plan to hang in my apartment. Woot woooooot! 




9. ADS

I know this puts me in the minority, but I don't care -- I.love.ads. Correction, I love well-done ads. Both in creation and placement. Commercials, billboards, digital banner ads, especially paid search ads ;) ... I love 'em all. The joy I feel when a dress I shopped for yesterday follows me around on the internet for the next 30 days is unparalleled. When I buy that dress, I feel like I was fulfilling my destiny in some way. I can't wait for the day that even my commute to work feels like a custom ad experience created just for me. 
{Note - so far, I actually HATE Facebook ads. Too flashy and tricky. Don't trick me to improve your click through rates. I will never buy your crap that way.} 


10. DIRECTIONS
Ha! So I grew up in the same small-ish town my whole life. Yet, I still get lost one out of every five trips I take in that area. I wish there was something on my face that made it obvious to others that I usually have no idea where I am going, much less any concept of where they're going. Yet, when people ask me for directions, something just clicks. I get so pumped at the possibility that I will know something that will help someone else that every visual snapshot I've ever taken aligns perfectly in those moments, and I confidently give strangers clear and flawless directions. I finally understand the loop!

...Ok, most of number ten was an exaggeration. 

Or, rather, a complete lie. 

But I am getting better.