City Stops, Frozen Still

I had three transfers tonight. One at Clark, one at Belmont, one at Kimball. I hate waiting in the cold. Especially on a night like tonight. It's almost unbearable. You are moving your fingers inside your tight knit gloves inside your pocket just to keep them from freezing. You can feel your toes start to hurt even though you have on two pairs of socks and the part of your face which is uncovered is feeling burned from the wind. As I stood on the corner of Clark and Belmont I thought about how much I didn't want to be standing out in this weather and all. Very still I observed the corner for about five minutes and then I started thinking about how if I was driving I wouldn't be standing here I'd be home already. But then I wondered, would I have missed out on something, like this moment? Would I have been able to observe a frozen moment in time when several people crossed paths here and it was loud and busy and noisy and bustling and living and breathing? I wouldn't have noticed it at all. I would have buzzed right through it-just flew by without even realizing the moment was happening and I was in it. I remembered my first few days in Chicago. Visiting Belmont street-standing on this very corner in love with a city I hadn't really even been acquainted with yet. And observing everything. Taking it in and people watching and wondering if it would always feel this new to me, would I ever just feel like I lived here, and not a tourist. And tonight as I stood there I realized I do live in this city and it had been a long time since I remembered how much I loved it.