Stuck in Lombard

So, on Thursday morning I headed out to a faraway place in Oaktown Terrace called Butterfield & Meyers. It was deep in the land of suburbria where inordinately nice people work, play and sleep. Its so nice, shiny, new and empty that nearly everyone speds by in a nice automobile. Except some unfortunate city people who accidently venture into this fairy kingdom in search of promised jobs.

Here is the a picture of the place where I accidently stepped off for my job interview. No way I was going to be late. But I could have been late because I got off nearly one intersection before necessary. From there began a long, lost walk trying to first get to Butterfields and Meyers and then 4 blocks north to it. After many events - of which I won't go into - I finally reached my destination (and on time!).

The next thing after a not so satisfying interview was to just grab a cab and go to the nearest Metra station and to go home to the city - a place where transportation made sense. I called Futura Taxis who kindly informed me to wait 25 mins. I spent 30 mins on the phone trying every orientation staff person in the University of Colorado, Boulder. Finally, it was a guy in the conferences center who had actually heard about fulbrighters being housed and fed by the university for a few days. He helped me leave a message for my sister - who was thankfully too far away from me to strangle. She's a pain to get in touch with.

Meanwhile, my patient taxi driver delivered me to Lombard. Painfully, I paid him 10 bucks. I was hoping that it would be less than 5! I was wrong. Worse, I arrived at 11:10 and I missed the last train by 6 mins. The next would come around 1:04PM. Great! So this is me staring at the railroad tracks, in one of the very hot weeks of August. Just staring. The sun shining. No birds chirping. Just very quiet. Very suburban. Not a single human being in sight.

I was wondering what to do with myself, when another guy came to the platform and sat right next to me. I told him that there was a wait till the next train. Apparently, this guy was even more stranded than I was. He actually got off the train by accident while coming from Wheaton. He had never seen this town before either. How strange is that. I realized I didn't want to hang around and sit next to this guy (did anyone see about the open firing on strangers in the Pittsburg suburbs? I did.) I was happy to learn that there were some restaurants right next to the Metra. I got off the platform and discovered Lombard downtown right down the stairsteps. Excellent, I thought. After a few minutes of wandering through the town's fairy tale themed gift shops, I thought, "Not so excellent". The place had a bizarre, utopia, happy feeling to it. I felt completely out of place. Where was my dirty, crummy city?

So I found online this picture of Main Street, Lombard. Think of a more greener, sunnier street that I saw that day. Little kids playing around. Old, white people wandering in for coffee. Dads on laptops with little girls prancing around. Mothers on lunches with teenage sons on outdoor patios. Teenage sons with mothers on outdoor patios?????? Really weird. So I wandered around, till my wandering took me to Brix cafe/pizzeria. That place was not the best. Here I sit down hoping for reasonable lunch fares - this is far away from Chicago, right? You guys DON'T have a 10 percent tax right? Wrong! The tuna sandwich cost a whopping 8 dollars and it was dry and bland as well. To fight the blandness, I borrowed the chef's chilli sprinkler. I sprinkled red chilli from time and time again.

Lunch was boring. Saw white people come after more white people. Boring, boring, boring. All I could think of is that wow, I'm stuck in Lombard. Its so strange. I'll tell you why I was in awe. Lombard, from Chicago, sounds like the END OF THE WORLD. Or one of the ends of the world. Other ends include: Joilet, Hammond, Waukegan, Kenosha, and Lake Bluff. Could you blame me? I know it sounds snooty but I just couldn't believe how far away I had managed to come on my own. Of course my 10 dollar charging taxi driver helped, but still! Not bad for the 3 dollars I paid on my own on 3 buses :)

Finally 12:45 came by. Faster than I expected. I swallowed my carrot cake (what? I felt sorry for myself! It was a pity dessert!). Picked up my things. Shoved the chilli sprinkler back to the chef. And scurried away. Like an unbelonging, urban spy. I slovely made my way. Careful to not touch the little, playing children. Just in awe at the little things. Where I was coming from, children do not prance on main streets like this!

The rest of the journey back home was just as uneventful as previously described (Yes! Sarcasm!), so I will skip it avoid you falling asleep. This is the happy sight of a Metra train. Happy, because these suckers can take an hour (or sometimes 2) to come by again.

Imagine my gladness to see this old hunker come by. More greenery in the background though - it is July right now.

So it took me an hour to get to Oglivy station. Then 45 mins to get home to Jefferson Park - I wasted 15 mins wandering about in a lot of sleep. Another 15 mins walking home. When I came home, my eyes burned. When I was about to crawl on the sofa to nap, my sister wants to talk. Apparently, I scared the director a bit and he insisted she get in touch with me. I couldn't even roll my eyes. Life! I told my sister to buzz off because my eyes were shutting on their own.