Cosmic Muffin's deal with CTA

As I struggled to get home, I got a big snootful of Cosmic Muffin dung. Yup. I know that smell.

Coming out of the library downtown, I debated my route home. Walk a couple blocks to the 22/36? Climb up to the Brown Line? Or just walk half a block to the red line? I dashed down the stairs out of the wind just as a north-bound train arrived. Sweet!

Cozied into my seat. But we weren't going anywhere. Literally. An announcement came over the speakers:
"Due to a medical emergency at the Addison stop, all power has been cut off in both directions. We hope to restore service shortly."

No problem, I just came from the library, so I could choose between Sara Paretsky or The Great Mortality. (I love me some infectious disease books.) Which was a great plan until CTA officials kicked us out of the train. Ugh. Pulled the hat and gloves and hood back on to find the 22.

Like everyone else.

I lent my phone to a girl who had to call work. Because this is really beyond the usual "trains running late" scope. We all crowded onto the 22, which is usually not this crowded at 2PM in the afternoon (like when I caught it home after my interviews. strangely comforting in its familiarity.) So people are speculating what "medical emergency" meant. Rumor had it some guy committed suicide and CTA had to scrape him off the rails. Lots of talk about Jesus. But no matter how entertaining it is to gossip about rail pizza or the Cosby kids (unrelated) we all noticed that the bus wasn't moving at Chicago & Dearborn. Cars were going by, the light was changing. OK. Maybe it was the guy in the wheelchair with the TUBA taking a while to board.

Nope.

This bus was out of commission. So all of us who had been shooed off the red-line trains were similarly removed from the 22. To wait for the next bus, which was pretty crowded because of the red-line. At least they didn't charge me a transfer. People blamed this on the devil (he's not into petty, non-evil things, but it is right up the alley of Cosmic Muffin.)

What should have taken 1 train and 20 minutes took 1 broken train, 1 broken bus, 1 functional bus and an hour to get home. Good thing I was not having major body issues (didn't have to pee or eat desperately, which could have made things REAL ugly.) And since I didn't have anywhere to get but home after a few hours at work, I could appreciate the humor. HA! I laugh at you Cosmic Muffin! (And now I should probably hide under my desk for that....)

on iTunes: "Feel Good Inc" - Gorillaz