That Burning Smell is Me Thinking…

I walked into Starbucks this morning, and the young punk behind the counter greeted me with, “talk to me.” He obviously didn’t understand that he was being extremely rude. I decided to treat what he said literally and with the most clueless face I could muster I replied, “what do you want me to talk about?”

At least the girl at the register was nice, so I only talked to her and ignored him from that point forward. As I was walking away he said, “I hope you have a better day.” Jerk.

It’s one thing to be unintentionally rude by not knowing better, I can tell when someone with inadequate social skills is being sincere. It is inexcusable to try to be cool and as a result appear extremely disrespectful. So this kid behind the counter lacks essential clues about respecting others, I hope he learns a few essential social skills for the sake of all the other people who will encounter him in the future.

This little exchange happened after I suffered through another example of how the CTA can turn my morning commute into a masochistic thrill ride. Maybe the train operators enjoy torturing us. They like to pack us in and toss us around, accelerating and stopping as hard as possible then randomly proceed at an extremely slow crawl prompting many of us to anxiously glance at our watches. At least it was Saturday so it wasn’t as crowded as usual.

There is an explanation for the bad train service. They are doing construction on the tracks and it is unfortunately going to get worse starting in April. I have been seriously considering getting a cheap bike.

After the bumpy and rude start, my day turned out good. I had to remember that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of my reaction to it.

I enjoy listening to U2 again.

I was a huge fan since the early 80’s when I heard about this cool band from Ireland. I remember being glued to the radio late one Sunday night in 1983 listening to George Gimarc interview The Edge on KZEW and thinking about how I wanted to be at the concert, but I was only 14 and it was a school night. All I could hope for was hearing the interview and listening to them on the radio. I later bought all their albums and followed them closely. I remember going to see Rattle and Hum on opening day. I was blown away by Achtung Baby. I also own The Passengers CD along with a couple of other rarities. During my teenage and early adult years, there was always a U2 tape or CD nearby.

After moving to Chicago in 1999, I became burned out on U2. If I did listen to them, It was only Zooropa, on headphones, briefly, and not very often. Every time I heard U2 or saw then on TV or in a magazine, I would ignore them or leave the room. It was like a gruesome car wreck and scratching fingernails down a chalkboard all rolled into one.

A few weeks ago I started riding the train more, so dusted off my neglected iPod to make the rides more interesting. I realized a few days later that I had no U2 in my iTunes despite owning many of their CDs. So I imported all my U2 CDs into iTunes and put most of them on my iPod. I am a fan again. I am even going out to buy the latest CD tonight after I am done with this. I feel like I am reunited with old friends.

What kind of morning did this woman have that she had to do her makeup on the train? I can imagine her rushing out the door this morning. Maybe she woke up late, had to get little Joshua off to school, then jump into the shower, get dressed and out the door in less than 15 minutes!

She is about 40ish, brown hair with a touch of gray, and a slightly permanent expression of worry on her face. I watched as she pulled out one bottle after another and smeared stuff on her face. Then she did the eyes. I got off the train just as she was finishing everything off with the lipstick. She looked less human and more like a plastic mannequin after she was done.