Went downtown today

I was on the L sometime after 11AM and I encounter a couple of interesting characters on my way towards the Loop.

The first sat next to me even though there were plenty of seats to be had on the train. I thought it was unusual especially when you had your pic and the train wasn't particularly crowded. He was talking like he knew people on the train.

He moved to this other girl on the train and sat next to her. In doing so he chose to crouch down like he was hiding. From what? I had uttely no idea. He talked to this girl like he knew her and for real not like he knew everybody.

Now by 69th Street he got off the train and he did the same thing walking away from this girl. He crouched back down onto the floor like he was hiding. And then made it back to the doors he must have boarded the train thru. Then apparently he did some kind of dance and he had the other passengers talking about him like something was off. There probably was something off!

Anyway as the train pulled off from 69th Street he didn't go anywhere he was sitting on the platform as the train pulled off. He was still munching on his McDonald's fries and I must say he didn't look like he could've been homeless. If nothing else he may have had no where he needed to be on this day.

This next character after 69th Street I ran into him numerous times. You can see one such story here. In any case he was on the train begging as has been the general experience with this man, but there was a woman on board the train who decided to start talking about him loudly. That invited him to stick around on this car a little longer instead of moving on.

He was mumbling some stuff and then mentioned that he went to war college and he put himself thru that sh*t. And then he finally moved on but this woman was still talking about. She said that he smelled like death (I never smelled him thank goodness) and that she said he had two bookbags and he carried his life in them.

Then no other characters. I spend a brief period of time downtown. Basically I was supposed to pay my mother's water bill but City Hall was closed I had to get a shot of the signs that congratulated the President-elect (the signs apparently were paid for by Mayor Daley's campaign committee looking at the fine print in red though perhaps for some of you that's old news). I got a few mobile phone photos of the sign.

I had trouble walk thru Daley Plaza with the Christkindlmarkt going on and there was about to be an animal rights protest that started on Daley Plaza. I checked out the studios of CBS 2 with a photo of the CBS logo on Washington. Then I headed to State Street towards Macy's and it seemed oddly busy even if they've fired the original Christmas window dressers that were holdover's from the Marshall Field's era.

I decided to go shopping but basically for stuff I could buy at any store back on the south side. Either way I decided I wasn't going to stick around the loop this afternoon. I'll be back home for a much longer period in two weeks so I'll have plenty of time to lounge around. That was my brief time in the Loop this afternoon.

On the same trip at the beginning of this story read this blog from Chicago Carless about the new policy regarding continuos riding that Mike Doyle believed is directed towards the homeless on the L.