I HEART Traffic

I spent 5 hours and 45 minutes in my car today. I am not exaggerating. Let me give you the play by play.
I had a meeting in Maryland so I went up in the morning: 1 hour 15 minutes. (Semi-Normal day at the office...)
I finished my meeting around 2:00pm and drove to DC - traffic was bad and I took the advice of my boss and went 70 to 29 to 32 to 295 and got lost: 1 hour 30. minutes. (Kind of annoying...)
I realized I had my co-workers keys in my purse so I then turned around and drove BACK to Maryland: 2 hours. Traffic was so backed up on the Parkway heading north I was filing my nails as I was driving. (So very painful...)
I then, of course, had to come home and traffic, again, was not all that good but it only took me an hour. (A moral victory, but still pretty much road rage central...)

I had much time to focus on my inner chi. By the end of nearly 6 hours, my leg was numb and if one more person didn't let me in, so help me.

I live in the city, I love the city. I love that you can walk places and go to the corner store and buy milk. I love that you can find the metro and you can hail a cabbie and (for a price) they will take you anywhere worth going. I love that I can not drive my car for a whole weekend and half the week. I live in the city so I don't have to drive, because this commuting stuff is HORRIBLE.

A co-worker of mine lives in Baltimore and takes the train down to DC everyday. We often have light-hearted debates about how crapy her commute is vs. how expensive my mortgage is. Although, there are days that I would be happy to take a train to pay a cheaper mortgage. And while the theory of taking a train to work is lovely, my co-worker repeatedly tells us all train horror stories of people tending to personal hygiene to help pass the time commuting. Everything from doing their makeup (not too bad pending on what it is, I guess) to clipping their nails (awful, awful, awful). And if the train is late or broken or lost - what do you do?! With all that said, however, the train is a much better option that what I did today.

I heard a story on the radio the other day about a growing number of Americans who drive something like 2 and a half hours to work - one way. Super Commuters I think they were called. These people are clearly nuts-o. 5 hours in a car? I would be in Danbury minimum. If I had to do that every day I would get another job.

It's a good thing today's little excursion in the car was a one time deal, because if I had to do it everyday I would need another job... and I like the one I have quite a bit.