Stressed?

If you want to know how people deal with stress in the city, ride the public transportation. At some point during your ride most likely something will break down, hesitate or sling you from side to side. Last night I got on the train and the usual 10 minutes it takes to get from downtown to my apartment turned into a 45 minute ride.

The girl sitting on the other end of the car continued talking to her boyfriend about supermodels. About how they can't eat, how they're really not stick-skinny (obviously it's just the camera that gives them that effect) and she just can't get over....

The couple sitting in the middle of the car start creating their own CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) slogans. "If you want to add annoyance to your long, frustrating day at work, take the train!"

The girl on the end kept staring at the floor, sitting in the same position with her hipster skirt and jacket placed just so. I wish I knew what was playing on her iPod to keep her sitting that still, staring at that same spot, with no expression for the entire ride....

And finally, the boy across from me. He kept mumbling curse words, banging his head on the back of his chair and then (my favorite part of course) taking out his lighter to burn the bottom of his jeans. Over and over again.

I tend to just sit in a kind of lethargic state, staring into nothingness and thinking about the past. Today the rain made this impossible not to do. I was at a training and sometime during my third glass of Ugandan Chai (that I smuggled into the country club in my purse), my mind wandered back to Uganda. Sitting in the hut with the doors open, listening to Dr. Kim talk about water pumps and agricultural ideas: solutions for practical problems. Then the rain would come and we'd all stop and listen. There's no rain like African rain. And as I snap back into how to solicit money from "major gift donors" I ask myself, what am I doing here?