Life's simple (and expensive) pleasures

Driving to work. I used to never give it a thought. I'm from California - land of commuters. Everybody wakes up and gets in their car and goes to work, plus there are things called parking lots around said work buildings.


But I moved to Seattle. Land of Eco-Craziness. Where the mass transit system is a highly intricate system of buses and soon-to-be light rails and even an underground system!! Some people think it's not good, but if they went to California (except for BART) they'd see how amazing the Metro system really is.


And it's cheap - or for me it is. $60 a YEAR gets me a bus pass to go where ever I want. All Day. Yup - $60 a year. If I didn't have kids I'd seriously think I wouldn't even need a car. But it's not all its cracked up to be. It doesn't bother Rod at all, he's so used to it. He just gets to the bus stop and waits patiently for a bus. Gets on and goes to work.


This is not easy for me. First, I feel trapped Downtown. Yes, Downtown has a lot going for it - but I'm used to being able to drive to a doctor or dentist appt. Or getting my kids in an emergency, or doing errands at lunch time. And sometimes - I used to forget something and take my whole lunch and drive BACK to my house and get the stuff I forgot. But not when you take the bus, I'm stuck Downtown , and I can't even get out til my bus starts up again at 3:30pm. Ever feel sick and want to go home? Well, I'd have to take a taxi!! $25!


Secondly, it's cold, wet, moist windy (**insert any weather you don't like standing in here**). And when you take the bus you have to stand there, in said yucky weather. Every morning and every afternoon. This sucks. THIS SUCKS BAD. I feel as thought it's a big reason why I hate the weather here.

Then there's also that I get motion sickness and although I don't get it often - when I get it is usually in the mornings when I'm smooshed into the back of the bus with no view of the front window and the road. See, I NEED to have the most front spot so that I can be directly staring at the road, just as the driver does, or I feel ill. Which gets to another point, I can't READ on the bus - it's seriously gets 30 minutes of me trying in vain to stare out a window and not feel sick - EVERYDAY.

Which makes me in turn, want to drive into work. And I do. Maybe once or twice a week. There I am with nearly fully subsidized bus pass, nearly FREE commuting! And since I HATE waiting for the bus, I just drive in - it's SO MUCH EASIER. I leave when I want. It's so much less stressful. I don't feel rushed. Do YOU know how much it SUCKS to have to yell and rush your kids all because you need to catch some stupid bus???

So to the title of this post: Life's simple pleasures. I LOVE DRIVING TO WORK. I don't care the bus is free, I don't care that gas prices are insane. I LOVE being in my car, with MY music on, sipping on MY coffee - with the heater cranked all the way up. Traffic? WHO CARES! I'm warm and toasty listening to music and drinking a latte - what's not to love?

So I drove today - actually out of necessity today. And I parked in the EXPENSIVE parking! $14! and then had to pay to park at the college too, for my night class - another $6!....So for $20 I have my freedom and I love it. If it rains - who cares, I have my warm car. I can come and go as I please.