{"id":3867,"date":"2012-10-17T21:36:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T04:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2025-11-02T17:25:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:25:05","slug":"trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=3867","title":{"rendered":"Trains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I discovered an interesting thing on my latest trip to Chicago.<\/p>\n

I kind of miss living near trains.\u00a0\u00a0 See I grew up a half block from the tracks that go through Burbank.\u00a0 I spent my whole childhood hearing the freight trains pass.\u00a0 So when I woke in the middle of the night to a slight tremor of my bed I’d listen for the train.\u00a0 Well, to reassure myself it wasn’t an earthquake and I didn’t need to rush for the doorway!<\/p>\n

This last trip I rode the train from Medway Airport to my hotel in downtown Chicago.\u00a0 The Loop, its called.\u00a0 I mistakenly got off the wrong exit and since I didn’t want to deal with all the luggage on the train again, Joan and I shared a taxi.\u00a0 But the first ride was actually pretty pleasant.\u00a0 I had my music in\u00a0 my ears with my iPhone and a good grip on my giant suitcases!\u00a0 Everyone else was a commuter of some sort and it was the same type of mix as I’d see on the Metro in Los Angeles for the most part.\u00a0\u00a0 But this train traveled through downtown on elevated tracks.\u00a0 It gave it a certain “Disney” effect.<\/p>\n

At the time it was fun and I watched the mostly brick buildings with their different types of balcony’s pass by at a slow pace.\u00a0\u00a0 And I thought back to so many t.v. shows I’d seen of people complaining of the constant train noise outside of their apartment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once home I was watching a DVR recording of the new show Chicago Fire (while working cuz I cannot seem to watch television without doing something whilst doing it!!)\u00a0 and I saw a train pass in the background of the show on elevated tracks.<\/p>\n

And the strangest feeling of nostalgia swept through me.\u00a0 Truly strange… and I can only blame the wonderful time I had there for any attachment to the city.\u00a0 Yes, my father was from Chicago originally but he’s been in the So Cal now for 50 years & we have no family still there.\u00a0 (Well, actually I have a crazy Aunt in a home and a young married cousin somewhere out there… lol… but one I barely know and the other is a good Christian woman and doesn’t need eccentric Heather on her doorstep!\u00a0 Even if she IS my favorite… and that was before I broke her leg when she was a 6 month old baby…but that’s a whole other blog!)\u00a0 And yes, my father speaks with a slight accent which I inherited from him but it’s always mistaken me as originating in New York not Chicago.<\/p>\n

Seconds ago (and what prompted this blog) I saw another television show and in the background was the sound of the train with a train whistle.\u00a0 And I realized that I LIKE trains and wouldn’t be unhappy living next to tracks again.\u00a0\u00a0 Or even better, living in a city where commuting by train was more normal than inconvenient.\u00a0 I suddenly\u00a0 understand how one of my lovers is so happy about his recent move to New York.\u00a0\u00a0 As addicted to cars as we are in Los Angeles (and I know my driving would make any Chicago man or New Yorker crazy)\u00a0 I like the slow, enjoy the scenery aspect of commuting by train.<\/p>\n

I’ve done the tourist thing before, but I think I’m looking forward to San Francisco in a few weeks.\u00a0 Perhaps we’ll take the BART to the convention center and a trolley here or there.<\/p>\n

Oh and my fondness for trains… couldn’t possibly be related to trains being the hobby of my father!\u00a0 Nah….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I discovered an interesting thing on my latest trip to Chicago. I kind of miss living near trains.\u00a0\u00a0 See I grew up a half block from the tracks that go through Burbank.\u00a0 I spent my whole childhood hearing the freight … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3870,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}