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Dispatches From the Train, Stream of Consciousness – from a blogging site

Mr. Bobblehead is back!

There’s a man I like to call Mr. Bobblehead. He has a long neck and likes to sleep on the train, so his head bobbles front and back, left and right, even when we’re stationary. Once the train starts up, the bobbling really gets going and he minds me of one of those The Dog bobblehead dolls. Every time I see him, I can fully amuse myself just by watching him the entire ride. [I say that in the nicest and least creepy way possible.]

Mr. Bobblehead is just one of the many characters I see on the trains [I rarely meet any of them; something about striking up a conversation with a stranger at 4 a.m. just seems a little shady].

My favorite is probably Lord Voldermort. I think he might have actually been a daytime encounter, but either way, the guy was tall, pale and bald, and he was dressed in all dark colors and wore heavy black eyeliner. Something about his face and eye shapes just made him so Voldermort-ish. He wasn’t scary-looking though, just very otherworldly. [I believe I met him in the week leading up to the final Harry Potter premiere, so perhaps the resemblance was tainted by my subconscious.]

I really wanted to tell him I thought his look was really cool and unique, but I felt my rather conventional appearance would make him think I was making fun of him. I haven’t seen him again (except in theaters obviously), but next time I may ask to take a picture of him.

There’s also Mr. Reggaeton, who’s always rocking with his BOSE headphones and tapping his feet away. I almost always see him if I leave at my “regular” time on my “regular” route. Secretly I think he’s a spy. Who else wears sunglasses at 5 a.m. inside a train? All the time?

I could go on and on about the people I encounter on the trains and buses I take every day, but I won’t. Because at some point I would have to move from those I find intriguing to those who are just plain creepy. Some of them I’ve had the misfortune of having to meet, and what I would write about them wouldn’t be pretty. So instead, I’m going to put down my pen and observe this security guy that just stepped on.

I wonder if that’s a real gun……………..

Because I work an early shift, I’m usually on my way home way before the stampede of nine-to-fivers hit the train tracks (slightly morbid humor intended). But Wednesdays are my Art Institute days (when it’s free but closes at 5 p.m.), which means I get to experience the rush hour commute.

The demography of the majority of this crowd is unmistakably young. With their dress clothes, smartphones, and Loop boarding stations, they are most likely interns or entry-level employees in the hundreds of offices downtown, populating thousands of cubicles. Their faces show the wear of routine work, their eyes are void of animation. And per their current socioeconomic levels in life, they are crammed into CTA trains like cattle.

Perhaps they just ride the train because they are young, hip and green, but I’m sure that given the chance, 90% of them would choose shorter commutes via more comfortable modes of transportation. Sorry for my cynicism.

I’m having an out-of-body experience as I write this.