17:53: omfg. the train left on time. and we’re crossing over I-55 right now — oh, all your poor, sad southbound people there in traffic! you should all be so lucky as to be me at this moment in time.

i am so fucking happy work is letting me take the train to lisa. it’s such a unique thing, travelling long distance by rail. and, probably more importantly, it’s a unique thing that i enjoy a very great deal.

so i’m here in compartment A of car 3001 on train #30, listening to “dream on” by aerosmith — it got in my head the other day, thanks to eminem, so i bought their self-titled album when i was out yesterday — staring out my window at an after-dark northeastern indiana (best guess, based on my perspective to the skyline — i can see that doofy diamond building from “adventures in babysitting” clearly, so i’m obviously southeast — but i don’t see any catenary, so we aren’t on the south shore line right-of-way) with the spires on top of the sears tower still just barely visible as we slowly move east — cars are passing us on streets outside; we can’t be doing more than 35mph (in-city rail speed limits are low relative to non-city, though as this is after all amtrak i’ll certainly allow that “fast” means only about 75.)

spent all of today cleaning the apartment and packing. am pleased to announce that the apartment is clean. am displeased to note that i’ve already realized something i’ve forgotten to pack, and while it wasn’t by any means the most important item it’s certainly an item that it pisses me off a lot to have forgotten: my digital camera. am so, so mad about that. i can’t believe i went off on this trip, which i was totally looking forward to, wherein i’m going to get to spend the only non-already-booked-up time in washington, d.c. i’ve ever had there, and left my camera at home. so now i’m going to have to either use the treo phone camera — crappy — buy a disposable — crappy — or get a new digital camera — expensive and wasteful. oh, so cranky. cranky and bitter.

although i have to say, my conductor, nathan, is a cutie pie. so that’s sort of a bright side.

i had the world’s worst cab driver on the way to union station. first of all, there are *always* cabs up the 700 block of south dearborn, where i live, so i pack up my shit and go downstairs to hail a cab. and there are NO CABS. none. like, not even any engaged cabs. so, fine. i walk the block and a half up to the hyatt, which has a cab stand. NO CABS. none go by. this is getting stupid. i walk up to congress. … NO MOTHERFUCKING CABS! what the shit! i had to walk all the way up to van buren to catch a damned cab. and when i finally get one, he’s the shittiest cab driver ever. first of all, there i am with one piece of rolling luggage, a large laptop bag, and a backpack, and does he get out and put it in the trunk for me? NO. he just sits there and i piled it into the backseat. because, what, i’m going to get another cab? THERE ARE NO CABS. fuck. so i tell him union station and we go, and he goes to drop me off on canal street, and i say, no, actually, could you drop me off at the entrance off clinton? and he’s suddenly all by-the-books guy, like, no, this is the passenger drop-off! while i’m sitting there in the back seat stunned about a cab driver refusing to take me where i want to go, especially when it means another minute or two on the meter, he concedes and takes me around. he obviously doesn’t know where the cab drive is and just sort of stops next to a bunch of double packed cars. fine. whatever. now i just want to get in, drop off my bags, and get a damn drink. does he help me get my bags out? no, of course not. what a shit!

get my tickets — had to stand in line forever because the magic ticket machine wouldn’t help me — get to the first-class lounge, drop off my carry-ons, and head out to a bar. get upstairs at the bar and go downstairs to the bar seating (don’t ask; it’s train station physics) and by complete coincidence run into smokes, whi’s there drinking with someone from work — i believe they had a meeting with Mr. Miller (Lite). so i got a harp from the world’s most easily distracted train-station bar bartender, we chat, i chain smoke, john gets another Lite, i get a double grey goose — the skimpiest damned “double” i’ve ever had, i have to say — drink that, smoke some more, gossip with john, and suddenly it’s 1710 and my train is boarding, so i go back to the lounge, claim my carry-ons, and head out to the platform.

am still in shock that the train left on time. seriously. this is not a first for me, but it’s probably only a third.

we’re going through a rainyard now, as i’m typing. locomotives lit up and moving cars around. there really isn’t anything like long-distance rail travel.

and now it’s nearly time for my 1830 dinner reservations, and after that i believe i’ll go get a hella overpriced beer from the lounge car, bring it back to my compartment, and watch a DVD. now this is travelling in style.