Back in Milwaukee
I decided, on a whim, to take a little vacation back to Milwaukee. I almost missed the train after I dropped a few credit cards back at the Loyola L stop and thought that I had not picked one up. After going back and surveying the area, I am fairly positive that card is back in my dorm room and luckily I am not liable if there are any damages. The Cubs game was over and there were a ton of people on the L. I had a nice seat, and the ride wasn’t all that bad, but I was cutting it close as I ran into Union Station ten minutes before the scheduled departure. The thing about Union Station is that it is shared among Amtrak and the Metra, with the Metra holding most of the terminals on the north side (the side that the Milwaukee service comes out of). What is even more interesting is that there is a Metra line called “Milwaukee,” so when I franticly asked the security personell they were a bit mixed up. It was another passanger that finally pointed me towards the Amtrak gate, which I came to only to find that I couldn’t have afforded to purchase a ticket on the train. So I had to run back to the Ticket-Purchasing window (with 8 minutes left) and thank god there was no line and I got right in. The man who worked the desk was helpful, albeit a bit disinterested, and he gave me my ticket and I immediately ran towards the gate. With five minutes left, I was running towards the steps of the train, sweating from running with the awkward and heavy bags containing dirty laundry and my laptop. The train was packed with people who looked as if they were enjoying a leasurely Saturday in Chicago. The air was definately that of those from the city of Milwaukee, there wasn’t the harsh atmosphere that I was getting accostomed to in Chicago. It was nice. The train was delayed a few times but the engineer seemed to make up the time as we arrived on time. I spent the two hour ride listening to the new Harry Potter Audiobook on my iPod (great book, and very well put together audiobook). I was picked up by my father and uncle, in my uncle’s car (so they had to honk at me a few times before I noticed them).
I arrived into the city thinking, somewhat arrogantly, that there would be more to do here than there was in Chicago. Bah. There is some family up from Pontiac, Illinois. They are all over teaching my sister how to play Texas Hold’em Poker, but that seemed to be about all that was going on. Was supposeto go over and hang out with Eoban and Brian, but odds are that isn’t going to happen. I may just go off on my own tonight and get some coffee. Bah!
