30 Day Writing Challenge 1 - 1/13/16: The Road

Your Commute To Work/School, Etc.

For 10+ years, I've had a daily 60-mile, roughly 90-minute roundtrip commute. That's if traffic conditions are ideal. Most days, it sucks 2 hours or more from my life, because -- oh, gotta stop by the grocery store or, hey gotta get a haircut after work or.... name the errand.

But strangely enough, the commute really doesn't bother me. It's the one place in the world that is truly mine and mine alone. My car is my sanctuary. It's my concert hall more often than not. It's my confessional. It's a place where I sing, talk aloud to myself, work out the kinks of my life and my brain, and go on adventures at times (detours, long traffic delays).

I have a couple of ways I can get to work -- once I go out of my hometown and through the next town over, I can choose to go through my work city's downtown, then via expressway to the exit I need on the interstate. Or I can get on the interstate once I'm out of that second town via a short state road (short but crowded). Once I'm on the interstate (always crowded), there are several ways I can get to work depending on traffic conditions.

One big thing is that you have to learn about seven different ways to get to the office because there's almost always a traffic backup,  slowdown, or jam somewhere on your route. Accept it and learn the back roads (hence the above-mentioned "adventures"). Figure out several options and just sigh when you have to use them.....

But as I said, this is my "cave time," so to speak. By the time I get home, I've forgotten work even existed and whatever problems I had are a distant memory. And same for when I get to work.... well, sometimes. Yesterday, I did hear a song that reminded me of a situation and it kind of stuck in my head a few minutes at work. But then work brought its own little challenges, and.......

So there's my commute. I've had 10-minute commutes (5 each way) and this ...... I'll take this. I need this. I need the solitude, I need the space. I miss those two hours when I'd much rather be doing something constructive but this is helpful too.