#@$#*&#!!! Traffic

One of my earliest posts on this blog was about road rage. Today had to be one of the all time blood pressure raising, road raging days of my commuting life. It took me nearly 3 hours to get to work this morning. AND I didn't have my cell phone with me. So here I was, stuck in never ending traffic, no way to reach anyone, knowing there were several deadlines waiting on my desk.

I tried CDs - I removed all my favorites from the car when I was loading up my laptop itunes.

I tried Book on CD - all I had were CDs I'd already finished.

I tried the radio - no good - annoying AM DJs, and highly stressful financial reports.

I tried watching the other people - that just made me more frustrated as all of THEM were on their phones!

In the end, there was nothing I could do. For TEN MILES. I went about 5 miles/hour. But it was more like 7 miles per hour. STOP. 5 miles per hour. STOP. 3 miles per hour. STOP.

ARGHHHH!

And for the last hour at work, I've had 3 phone calls from friends telling me how backed up the highway is going home.

Given the state of Wall Street and its fallen heroes, think I can pick up a helicopter on the cheap?

The Anti-Road Rage

I listen to books on tape on my commute. I can't tell you how greatly they have helped in curing my road rage. My commute is less than 22 miles, but worst case scenario has me clocking upwards of 1.5 hours of roadtime. The tapes allow me to focus on a story, get into the cadence of narration rhythms, enjoy the length of the commute because it gives me a few more chapters to enjoy.

The side benefit has actually been stealing a few moments to actually appreciate the drive. Parts of it are actually quite pretty, including the 2+ mile length of the Tappan Zee Bridge as it spans the Hudson River. There are moments when it is simply breathtaking to ride across the river and cast a view in one direction to see the boats marina'd in the shade of Hook Mountain; cast it in the other and see the Palisades rising up and the tallest of the NYC skyscrapers softened by the morning or evening mists.

Finding a way to bring my first love - reading a good book - into that car has given me more peace and enjoyment than I could have imagined. Now if only that bridge in Minneapolis hadn't collapsed...