I had the day off today so I decided to brave the cold ass frozen air and head downtown for some Christmas shopping. The Chicago winters do something to people that just makes for an entertaining day sometimes. I got on the train and right away some guy that was a complete tribute to the 1980s sat right next to me and proceeded to pull his knit hat off and out popped this amazing fucking hairdo that was feathered back and parted right down the middle. He pulled out a huge ass phone with an antenna on it and made a quick call to the office and right before he got off a few stops later he actaully pulled a small bottle of hairspray out of his bag and gave his feathered coif a couple of shots. My replacement seat-mate was a sort of middle-aged guy with his Ipod cranked up so that half of us sitting around him could hear what he was listening to. He was listening to "Don't Know What You Got Till it's Gone", by Cinderella. Holy shit I haven't heard that in years. I get off of the train and it's about 18 degrees downtown closer to the lake. People are bundled up wearing ridiculous looking shit that they just grabbed on their way out the house to stay warm. Everyone is walking quickly to get to where they are going trying to shield their faces from the sub-zero windchill. I'm in the middle of a group of people crossing the street together and out pops this asshole in front of all of us and he approaches this one lady and says, "excuse me, do you have a minute to talk about the environment?" She yells at him, "NO!!!" sounding as if she were going to kill him. I went in and out of a few stores, purchased a few things. The cold was getting to me. When the wind hits you and it's a below zero windchill man it just gets right to the bone and you can't shake it off unless you go into a building lobby and warm back up again. So on my way back to the train I was starting to stiffin up from the cold and it was getting unbearable. I didn't think that I could stand to walk another block in it and then wait on the train platform for the next train, so I ducked into a Starbucks and grabbed a coffee and sat for a minute. In walks this homeless looking guy who begins yelling and screaming to us all about Jesus and Christmas, etc. "All of you people don't know what Christmas is all about!!!! You think it's about buying coffee!!!!! It's not about buying coffee and presents damnit!!!!! It's all about God!!!! IT's about GOD!!!!!!" He repeats this several times until finally a manager approached him and escorted him outside. So, I make it to the L Train station and on the other side of the platform is some completely unsupervised kid with down syndrome acting crazy by himself. He kept picking up chunks of ice and snow and yelling, "BRICK!!!!" and then he would throw it as hard as he could at the train tracks and yell, "HA!!!!! Take that train!!!! Brick!!!!" I guess he was about 13 years old or so. Anyway, I'm bored and just felt like writing about this dumb shit. It's going to be 7 degrees tonight. High of 17 tomorrow. Son of a bitch.
