A hectic but fun trip into the city for me today. I always get a lot of work done on the train, but it takes so long getting there and back that I always feel rushed. It didn�t help that my haircut took two hours. No, I am not kidding. I have been going to the same woman for over ten years. In that time her price has more than doubled into an amount I�m embarrassed to say I pay, but I could not bear to find someone else. But it does take time, especially if she doesn�t have another appointment afterwards. I actually checked when I booked to make sure there was someone after me so it wouldn�t be an all day affair, but there must have been a cancellation. But, nevermind. It was relaxing, And damn, I look fabulous.

After the appointment, I walked down Michigan Avenue to catch the train I down to Hyde Park. The Christmas buskers were already about, with a saxophone and a Salvation Army bell-ringer on every block. City workers were putting up greenery all along the Magnificent Mile, and I stopped to watch a crane raise a monumental wreath into place on the Michigan Avenue bridge. So did half a dozen German tourists who were careening wildly in front of taxis on Michigan Avenue with their cameras held high.

In Hyde Park, I had a very pleasant lunch with an old friend in between errands in my department and an exciting afternoon in the dark and dusty stacks of the library. I have never quite recovered from the rearrangement of the stacks a number of years ago. I used to know where everything was, but now I always have to consult the map. It always makes me feel like a dilettante.

On the train ride back downtown, I noticed that the ad hoc campsites between the tracks and the buildings along Stony Island have increased in size and number. It�s hard not to assume that has something to do with the increasing gentrification of the Hyde Park/Kenwood area.

On the train back to the burbs, as always, I climbed to the upper level where I could have a seat to myself in peace. I couldn�t help but notice that on both of the suburb/Chicago trains I was the only woman on the upper level. Is there some kind of gender segregation zoning rule with which I�m not familiar? Surely I�m not the only woman who likes to sit alone.

The aftermath of the incredible rain we�ve had for the last few days was startling, as viewed from the train. There were huge lakes where previously there were none. Our yard is in recovery too. The small creek that runs along the rear of our property had become a raging river, but has now returned to its banks, leaving us with a lot of mud and debris. But that�s a cleanup project for another day.

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