About a year or so ago I discovered the Metra. The train runs from near our home to right next to where I work. When gas first hit $3/gal I decided to give it a shot. It was so great to take 3/4 of my travel time and turn it into productive reading time. When school started back up, I had to drive on school days but I took the train otherwise. When my son got a job at my store, he mostly took the train.

I have to get to the Libertyville train station about 25 minutes before my train in order to get a parking spot. I didn’t mind, that was 25 minutes in the Caribou Coffee to do some reading and I got an americano to boot. Well, the other day I was sitting there waiting for my train when I see a bus pull up in front of the coffee shop. I quickly wrote down the route number in my Franklin and forgot about it. When I remembered to look it up, it turns out that the bus route runs fairly close to my home and gets me to the train station just before my train comes. What’s not to love?

So Friday I drove up the street to a bus stop on the route map and waited for the bus. I had to leave earlier and the price of the bus ride each way is the same price as parking. Beginning to sound like a wash, except that I was almost a day behind in my reading schedule. ¹I figure out what I have to have read by when, then I count out ‘reading day’ which are non-Sundays and days when I don’t have an evening class. So I found a seat on the bus and started reading. By the time I got to the train station I was fairly caught up. I got a coffee and got on the train. By the time I got to Deerfield, I was almost done. That afternoon on the way home, I finished all the reading of all the books I had with me. Plus got started on a course pack that I got too late to fit into the schedule but one that is due by Thursday. That left a book at home to finish.

Boring post, but the point is a good one. If you are a seminary student and you’re overwhelmed with your reading schedule, public transportation may help you out.