Catching up on old things: Sex Train January 2009 Part I May 10th, 2009

I didn't blog as much as I would have liked too, but my words were being taken out of context at times.  This is why I held off writing here, but instead wrote some stuff on paper.  I will now take you on a ride via The Sex Train.  Enjoy!

The day was not like any other one.  I awoke early and called Connie.  I was in rare form with the jokes, sarcasm, and cynical comments.  Connie was enjoying my comments while I enjoyed my morning cup of coffee and usual cigarette.  I told her I was going to shower and then go pick up her and Derek.  My mother had an appointment in Park Ridge.  I arrived at Connie's, she came out with Derek and I held him while she put the car seat into my car.  She had trouble at first and there is nothing like watching a woman sit in a car seat to make sure it is secure.  It was because she had to move it over behind the driver's seat so Derek could be across from her while she sat shotgun.  The securing of the seat happened to be funny watch.  She was shaking and moving while sitting in the seat to make sure it was secured.  Derek was seated and we drove to pick up the moms.

I got moms got to her appointment on time.  Connie, Derek and I went to Golf Mill and found a cheap domicile for my Hawai..i trip.  (Connie kept the receipt as The Deed, but I ended up giving away the tent to a homeless man in Hawai..i.  Connie still says I gave away our home.)  We got some coffee and relaxed.  My mother called shortly afterwards.  We picked her up, stopped at her house for a few minutes, then headed to my house to grab my bags.  I wasn't fully packed, but almost.  I ran around my house gathered a few missing items then said my goodbyes to the family.  Andrea, Ellen, and Sue being the only ones home.  My train left at 3:15 PM and it was almost 1:00.  We hit the road.

Connie wanted to make a stop.  It turned out to be the wrong place, but we eventually found the correct place.  On the way to Connie's destination my chest started to hurt.  My mom was trying to name the different possible reasons for those chest pains.  None of which were the reasons.  The real reason was I kept looking into my rear view mirror and seeing Connie.  Her eyes, her smile; that beautiful smile; and it dawned on me that I was leaving something so great for something unknown and it was a bit scary.  My chest hurt for a while but I got thorugh it.  Shakespeare wasn't wrong when he said parting is such sweet sorrow.  The key is the leading up to that point and a self-realization that life is the best it possibly can be at that moment, but human choice changes it.  Of course those changese are with high hopes.

We finally headed for Downtown Chicago around 1:45 PM.  We made great time on the 290 passing my old life along the way.  I made a few jokes to my mom about it, and to Connie, but she really doesn't know much about it.  Only the few things I told her.  It's not that I don't want to tell her, it is just a different life and we have an entire future to tell stories from our past.  My stories are mostly grim anyways.

We found a parking space on Van Buren a block away from Union Station.  My mom told us to leave Derek with her so we could have our goodbyes.  We walked into Union Station.  It was freezing outside, and Connie had one backpack while I had the other.  We looked like a couple of hippies, which I verbally observed.  She laughed as did I.  I tried to check my baggage but it was too heavy and I had to carry it on the train.  This was fine for Amtrak but I immediately began thinking about L.A. and the airline.

Connie and me ran aound looking for phone cards for my travel phone.  That was a process.  I had 1/2 hour until my train left.  We went to CVS and then onto Walgreen's.  Let me say there are a lot of homeless downtown.  It saddens me.  Especially since I was homeless off and on for years.  There isn't much I can do given Connie's and my situation.  We are starting from scratch, and it is going to be a tough trip.  I can only hope it will be a happy one but we do have to work to make it comfortable.

We finally scored the phone cards at Walgreens after one bridge incident.  (inside joke).  At the register Connie couldn't hold back and told the cashiers about our separation and where I was going .  Not to mention threatening me with violence by saying she could push me backwards and I wouldn't be able to get up.  Like a turtle on his back, this of course was a joke, but I know she didn't want to me to leave.  If I would have met her 4 months earlier, I don't think I would be going to Hawai..i.

We went back to Union Station having to go through another bridge incident.  We went downstairs and had our goodbye.  It hurt to hold her, hug her, and kiss her goodbye, knowing I only had ten minutes left.  Her kisses are like wine.  I get drunk off of her.  I stood there thinking of whether I should go or not.  Obviously, I decided to go and as she walked away I prayed I would see her again.  Yes, I prayed as she walked up the escalator out of my sight.

I went and boarded the train.  I got settled and then called her.  She was already home.  We talked for a little while and then I got comfortable.  Behind me was a couple with a heavy Briitish accent.  In front of me was two Korean women chatting in their language.  I was on another International trip.  This has happened quite a lot in the recent past. i.e. Immigrant Wonderland Blog.

The first leg of the trip stopped in Naperville, which is when I put Connie's picture on the back of the seat in front of me so I could look at her and share in the trip with her beside me in some fashion.  I had an empty seat all the way to Galesburg.  It was also the fist stop that I was I was able to smoke.  How fitting since I had not seen Galesburg since they released me from prison in March of 2001.  Galesburg, good ol' medium-maximum security to bring back the memories.  They filled the seat next to me with a semi-talkative fellow from the Quad Cities on his way to Kansas City.  We chatted and joked about the Amtrak being a 1/2 hour late.  They made up some time on the way to the next stop of Fort Madison, IA.  This is where the story gets exciting.

So I get off to smoke at Fort Madison.  This hippie looking guy named Eric gets off with me and we are standing there bullshitting for a while.  He had a full red beard, glasses, long hair tied up in a pony tail like a top-knot of a samurai.  People bagan to board and one lady steps on the foot stool to board the train, misses one foot and then face plants on the pavement.  She then rolled under the train, at which ttime the conductor says, "Ma'am, what are you doing?"

Now at first it seemedl like an accident, but the rolling under the train made it seem like she was doing something along the lines of a suicide attempt.  I understood immediately where the conductor's mind was going.

She replied, "I don't know...What happened?"

"You fell, are you okay?"  The conductor asked.  He obviously let his first thoughts dissipate.

"Yes, I am fine.  But I don't remember falling."  She says as she pulls out a handkerchief to wipe her face.

I noticed the blood at that point and said, "She is bleeding."

The conductor looked at her face and blood was gushing out of the bridge of her nose.  She still tried to board the train saying she was alright, but the conductor had her taken inside.

"Don't forget her purse."  I said.  I pointed to the black puse on the pavement.

The conductor picked it up and ran it down the platform to the other conductor.

Eric and I started talking about it and the conductor came over.  I started laughing after he asked us what we seen.

"I plead the fifth at this time to avoid questioning in the future."  I said jokingly.

"Stop laughing, you are going to make me laugh."  The conductor replied.

I said, " I am from Chicago, things are tough all over."  Now I know I am cold and she was hurt, but the way it happened was too funny.

The conductor explained he would have to fill out an incident report and asked us if she dented the train.  I told him I didn't think she could have dented the train.  He walked to the station as the fire truck and ambulance pulled up.  We were already runnng late, so I knew it was going to add more time to our trip.  Before boarding I said to Eric, "That is why old people should NOT do whippits!"

He laughed and made some comments about nitrous and its effects while we boarded and laughed.  The quad cities guy asked, "What did you do?' referring to the fire trucks and my smoke break.  I epxlained it to him, but told me he didn't want hear anymore after , "She was gusing blood."

I had to call Connie and explain it to her.  She asked if I laughed and I told her "Of course I did."  This in turn, made her laugh.  It was funny, but the lady got on the train with a bandage over her eye and eyebrows.  I seen her the next day and she had a nice swollen black eye.  The trip only got better and better as we went across the country.