Driving Home

My commute home has become really messed up due to construction that's forcing all kinds of traffic onto the highway I normally take between the interstate and the major road I follow across the river and almost all the way to my apartment.  In fact, the traffic on that highway has gotten so bad that the traffic wanting to exit from the interstate onto the highway backs up the right hand lane for over a mile before you even get to the exit.  Once I realized it was taking me over an hour from office door to apartment door (about 50 minutes of that in my car, most of that in stop and go traffic), I was like, Screw this.

So I decided to try a route suggested by my officemate, who has lived in this area all her life and is one of those people who knows all the roads.  (If my grandmother asked her, Don't you have a map of Snow City in your head?, she'd say, Yep, as well as Coldville and about half a dozen suburbs.)  She suggested I make my way to the river along surface streets, cross the river at a particular spot, and then follow the river road home.  It's a more scenic drive with 90% less stop-and-go traffic compared to my previous route.

But the river road itself is under construction!  So there's a stretch of road where we are diverted onto some other streets before joining the river road again past the construction zone.  (I don't actually know what's up with this construction.  I think Robert said it had something to do with damage from flooding?? Not sure what's going on or when it'll be over.)  This is not dire, but the Umleitung does add yet more time to my commute.  Even so, I think I'm probably still saving about 5-10 minutes compared to the road-rage-inducing highway route, and I'm spending most of the time actually driving.  It's kind of amazing how much more pleasant it is to drive than to be stuck in traffic.  But then again, I mean, duh, right?  Being stuck in traffic is such a strong, clear example of one's will being thwarted, and having one's will thwarted is way frustrating.

I'm enjoying driving through the basically pleasant residential neighborhoods of west Coldville, where tigerlilies are majorly abundant right now.  I've seen yards that are, from what I can tell, completely covered in them.  The serpentine river road is fun to drive in a zoom-y car, and I like seeing all the people walking, biking, walking their dogs, etc., on the path along the river.

Path along the river?  Like the path I used to walk 2 miles to school every day?  Indeed.  That exact same path.  In fact, the detour I'm taking around the river road construction zone has me driving up to and turning right at the back of the business school on campus.  So in addition to all the other benefits of my new route, every day after work, I get to drive by that building of anxiety and despair in my shiny red car and say something mocking and triumphant like "Bite me, suckas!" as I go by.  Yep, out loud.  It's awesome.  I have yet to see any of my ex-professors or grad school minions standing outside the building as I drive past there, but that would be sweet, too.  In any case, saying "Later, losers!" to that hated place is a fun little daily celebration of Not Fucking Being in Their Miserable Ass Grad Program Anymore and Having a Real Job That Pays Me the Money to Own This Nice Ride.