Bye Joe

So I am not sure if I will get a chance to create another post or not before the year is out. So I want to take this time to say goodbye to Joe, who will no longer be riding our train next year. Even though I have only been riding the train for 3 years and others have been riding longer I have had some good times and good laughs with Joe. We are all sad that we will not see your simling face on Tuesdays - Thursdays any more.

Luckily for Joe there is some good news and that is through following this blog he will be able to keep up with the rest of us suckers who have to go to work everyday.

We will see you later Joe!

Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas yesterday. I know that I did! I got to spend it at home with my wonderful wife and we had a great day of doing nothing and it was everything that we hoped it could be :) We also got a few gifts for baby Q (yes Cathy I have embraced the nickname baby Q for our baby) and in an interesting twist baby Q got a gift for my wife :)

I hope that each of you had a great time celebrating with your families and if you have a funny, cute, or interesting story from your Christmas I would love to hear it.

Happy New Year!

Some interesting conversations

Now that I have all of the background stuff out of the way on to post what you all want to know about, what it is we talk about on the ride into work each day. Everyday brings something different, sometimes it's the normal easy stuff like that is it -10 degrees outside and sometimes it's really interesting like reminising about TV shows from the 50's and 60's and realizing that a lot of the stuff on TV today is a remake of some of those shows (I can't think of any examples right now). And no matter what we start talking about usually we always end up talking about food. I guess we are all just really hungry in the morning, maybe we should start eating breakfast before we get on the train? Nah, what fun would that be :)

The Feng Shui is off again

Now like most social groups we have our norms that we really don't like to have messed with, and we are no different. We each have our assigned places to stand in the vetebule and we each respect that and know not to stand in someone else's spot. Here is how that breaks down:

Joe stands on the right side on the stairs, Jim stands on the same side on the stairs as well (there is a railing that divides the 2 sides of the stairs). Tina stands in front of Jim, Cathy stands in front of Joe, Edith stands in the middle usually more toward Joe since he holds her coffee, Joel stands by Cathy close to the stairs on the left side of the train and I stand on the stairs on the left side of the train and NO ONE stands on the other side of the stairs from me as that is Don's (our conductor) spot.

This is our feng shui and it brings us peace, and if this broken then the peace of the train ride is broken and that doesn't make for a happy commute. So please help us keep our feng shui in line :)

What is this blog about?

Now that you have come to this particular blog, I am sure you are wondering what this blog might be about. Ok, so you probably figured from the title that it has something to do with trains and you would be right, kind of.

This blog is the story of a group of 6 commuters who, without the help of Metra, might never know each other.

About 3 years ago I started riding the Metra from Norwood Park to downtown Chicago. I used to sit down in the seats and possibly fall asleep and then go to work and rinse, lather, repeat. Then one day I started standing in the vestibule and saw that there were 6 people that had really wonderful conversations and it made the trip fun. I wondered how I could become apart of this group. So, one day I decided that I would interject my thoughts and boom, I was in! :) From that point on we have always stood in the same vestibule (second car from the back) and stood in the same places within said vestibule.

Jim and Joe stand on the stairs on the right side (as the train in moving forward), I stand on the stairs on the left side, Cathy, Joelle, Tina and Edith stand in the middle.

This blog will follow our commutes and fun conversations and things that happen on the train. I hope that you enjoy and stop back frequently and offer your insights. :)