It's Off To Work I Go...

I have about a 35 to 40 minute drive to work each way, depending on traffic. It gives me a lot of time to think. One of my favorite topics is blog ideas. Most mornings, I come up with some really fun and creative ideas... but forget them by the time I sit at my computer to write them down.

**********

My radio station of choice during drive time is 89.1 The Wood, which is the local university's 'educational' station. They play some eclectic music, mostly adult contemporary, bordering on punk, which I like. They also have no commercials, which is perfect.

The only problem is listening to the college students fumble over their words and the controls, learning-by-doing. Luckily, they don't have too much to do - only the occasional news and weather update. One particular student reads the weather and, if it isn't raining, instructs the listener to go outside and "enjoy the weather." It doesn't matter if the high temperature is below freezing... If it looks pretty through the window, he doesn't have anything else to say!

**********

When I get ready to leave in the morning, I listen to the traffic on another radio station and try to prepare myself for the numerous @$$holes that will be on the road that morning. Nothing pisses me off more than people who don't believe in waiting their turn. An exit only lane is not an invitation for you to speed past everyone else who is waiting in traffic and then cut somebody off to get back into the mainstream traffic; vice versa, if there is a mile-long line of people waiting in an exit only lane to get off the highway, you may not speed past in another lane and then slide into the exit only lane at the last minute.

People feel protected in their cars. If they did this at the grocery store or the license bureau, they get the sh!t smacked out of them. And they would deserve it.

**********

My morning commute also involves a stop at the convenience store to get a hot tea. I don't drink coffee, but I do like a bit of a caffeine kick in the morning. I have a specific routine for getting my tea:

• Get 24 oz. styrofoam coffee cup.
• Put 5 to 8 pieces of crushed ice in the cup, in order to cool the super hot water so I don't burn my face off when I try to drink it.
• Open a Lipton tea packet and place it in the cup.
• Fill cup with hot water.
• Put 2 Splenda packets in the tea.
• Dunk the tea bag a couple of times.
• Get a stirrer and stir the sweetener into the tea. Wonder how many other people have touched the stirrers before I put it into my cup. Rationalize that the temperature of the water will kill any germs that are on it.
• 2 more Splenda packets.
• Stir, dunk, throw away tea bag and stirrer.
• Try to find the one lid that hasn't been handled by the last 43 people that made coffee.
• Pay with my debit card for the $1.24 for a large hot tea. Wonder why it costs more for a large hot tea than a small hot tea, since I'm still only using one tea bag, just a little extra water. Think to myself that maybe I'll ask next time.

I don't actually drink any of the tea until I drive the last five minutes to work. I am highly opposed to hot tea being too hot.

**********

My goal is to someday have a job that I can do from home. I don't think I'd miss the commute.