this morning’s commute:
- leave house at 0855 (aka “35 minutes before i have to be at work,” aka “slightly before normal time”). entertain fantasies about arriving early to work. hahaha, poor stupid niqui.
- arrive at el stop at about 0903. get cup of coffee from the dunkin’ donuts built into the division stop.
- walk down to the nearly empty — except for a woman with three boisterous toddlers, and one cranky hipster — platform. put down coffee; take out knitting. mentally weigh how much knitting will be accomplished before the train arrives; decides it’s worth it even if it’s only half a row. begin knitting the last row of the first orange stripe.
- complete orange stripe. o’hare train arrives; departs. begin purple stripe.
- o’hare train arrives; departs at 0920. complete purple stripe. begin orange. wonder, “where is the train?” stare at all the people now on the platform, mourning in advance my inability to find a seat so i won’t be able to knit on the train.
- complete orange stripe. another o’hare train comes and goes. the boisterous toddlers are now sitting forlornly on the platform. begin purple stripe. a loop-bound train arrives! but it is full, and no one is able to board. it is now 0930.
- put knitting away as a second loop train arrives several minutes after the first, anticipating being able to board this one, but alas, it is full too, and again only a handful of people can squeeze on. get knitting back out. complete purple stripe.
- at 0939, begin red stripe. complete one row. get disgusted, have a 10AM meeting that am now in danger of missing, so leave el station and get in a cab.
gotta love that CTA rapid transit that is neither rapid nor transitty (but it certainly is CTA)! i want my two dolla back!
did make it to my meeting on time. and got knitting in. the funny part (!?) is that while i was standing on the platform knitting, i was mentally composing a blog entry about the virtues of subway knitting: i cast that sock on this past weekend, without much hope of progressing much on it, but i’ve gotten nearly all of the cuff done just on my commutes this week. so yeah, you have to juxtapose the pain of repeatedly poking the left index finger with sharp, pointy needles, not to mention dropping stitches (naturally while knitting in dark purple) on a dim, dirty, unlit subway platform and then trying to pick them up before they fall down sixty rows against “dude! i got like four inches done on my sock this week without even having to try!” of course, then the CTA found a way to transmute the lead of my tolerant amusement into golden fury, so, you know… go them. socks are the ideal subway knitting, though, i think. two circs, doesn’t take much room, not really much pattern, so you don’t have to think about it… you can do it in dim light situations, you aren’t going to have to stress out too much about a pattern. plus, if i can knit six inches in a week’s commuting, then i can turn heels over weekends, and get a sock done in two weeks! how awesome is that? still, i hope the blue line can get its ass in gear tonight for my ride home. seriously. i can do without the 40-minute waits for a 10-minute train ride.
