Up at night

So, I'm up because I don't really feel like sleeping.

Today I attempted to go to Evanston to get my hair cut. I wasn't quite sure what stop to get off on the purple line, so I had a little adventure.

First of all, I'm exhausted for no reason. I got a good seven hours of sleep, and was almost late to my appointment because I slept in until 8:40 when I was supposed to leave at 9. So of course I'm drifting off on the train, falling asleep playing my DS. I'm in and out listening for the Central stop, which I remember getting off at before (heehee getting off).

In. Ding Dong. Doors closing. Central is next. Doors open on the left at Central. Sweet, I think. I'm almost there.
Out. I'm leaning over into my legs to sooth my buzzing head. A vague image of people getting off the train. But this is still the stop before, right?
Nope. I wake up and we're passing suburban houses, and it's taking longer than it should. Shit.
Yep, this is Linden.

Of course it has to be snowing like crazy and freezing outside. But at least there's already a train back to Howard in the station.

Now, you would think that the Central stop, for its name, would have something to do with the shopping center of Evanston, right? Nope. Not true at all.

"Do you know where Sherman is?" I ask the CTA person.
"Sherman? Um... I think it's somewhere that way." She points behind her. "It's a ways away, though. Where are you trying to get to?"
"1704 Sherman. I think there's a Hair Cuttery somewhere around here."
She gazes off into the distance, thinking. She points her thumb behind her again, trying to gauge her surroundings. "Sorry," she finally says, shrugging.

I exit the CTA station. and realize that this is not the shopping center. This is the place where my good ol' friend Mason picks me up sometimes. A deserted wasteland.

So, I call him and he tells me that Davis is the stop where most of the stuff in Evanston is. And because I'm obsessed now, on a mission to get my hair cut and dyed, I wait in the cold for the train, shivering, hunched into my scarf like a bird hunching into its chest feathers to protect against the cold. I almost just wrote "to protect against the corn."

Well, I get off at Davis and actually manage to find Sherman without too much trouble. The hair cuttery is right there, and I realize that this is not the place I had been to before. Fuck it, I think.

Nervously, I enter the hair cuttery and try to judge the quality of the hair cuttresses. Yes, I just made that a word.

Well, this blog is getting to be way too long so I'll just sum up the end. Basically the woman who cuts and dyes my hair, Nuran, a Turkish woman, is awesome and friendly and very good at what she does. She keeps asking who cut my hair before, like my head was a disasterpiece before she got to it. Hey, it was cute before when it had just been cut.

Speaking of, I realized today that cut and dye=cut and die. Why is hair cutting suddenly so morose?

And there's this guy who keeps clapping his hands around his woman coworkers' arms and shaking them. He seems really annoying, but they're speaking in Spanish so I don't know what they're saying.


Well, I wait for the dye to set and decide to play a little DS; Animal Crossing, of course. And the dye soaks in and turns out amazing and I leave happily. I get to Howard and realize that I left my DS in the hair cuttery, so I call the place (luckily Nuran gave me a business card). Yes, my DS is still there. I rush off the train and after it leaves I realize that I left my hat, the one with the ear flaps that I was just beginning to warm up to, on the train. So I pull my hood over my still-wet hair and wait for the train. Again.

This time things go okay, I get my DS and a new hat from CVS and make it out to Morse without too much trouble. I buy groceries on the way and watch a couple episodes of X-files while eating ravioli under my incredibly thick and comforting comforter. And I doze off, and here I am not, awake.

If you're still reading, thanks. I guess I rambled a lot about nothing in particular. I'm glad that I don't get worked up over little things like this. I laugh it off as another adventure and wait for the train.