The Commute

[magenta321]

I love my job except the commute.

What do you guys do when you're stuck in traffic to keep your sanity? I tend to gab on my cell, which isn't the best thing.

I've thought about doing my makeup, but I'm on my way home usually, and will just be washing it off anyway.

I try to listen intently to music, but I get really bored.

I always feel like I'm in the "everybody hurts" video. I often sing it to myself as I sit there on the highway.

If I didn't drive to work when I do, my trip should take about fifteen minutes. On average it takes 30 minutes. An hour long commute happens once a week or so. The longest commute I've had so far was two hours (which is pretty bad for a fifteen minute drive!).

I really don't know what to do with myself. Any ideas?

Ya'll must get traffic. What do you do?

[theeye]

NPR.

[jenninca]

Play little games with myself by taking a different side street or getting off at a different exit and seeing how much difference it makes in my time.

Sing along with the radio.

Make plans for when I get home or to work.

Let the stress of the day go away.

[taurusmoon]

Having just gotten into the office after an hour and ten minute commute (9 miles) I can sympathize.

I usually pass the time by singing along to whatever's playing in my car at the time. When I'm feeling particularly cruel I roll down the windows. This morning I regaled the Long Island Expressway with Chris Smither's Live as I'll Ever Be.

When I'm feeling particularly pensive I work out whatever problem is plaguing me at the moment. I get some of my best thinking done in traffic. Although, I must admit, some of the thoughts are best left unrepeated.

Sara

[lynnzop[$]]

Listen to an e-book. You might use the time to learn something useful.

Lynn

[mnehr]

Please don't hate me, but I live almost across the street from my office. From my window you can look across the golf course and see my roof..

Now, for all of those times I travel, I am an audiobook person as well. I could probably quote Tom Peters and Steven Covey.

[poseidon]

Well I gotta tell you, my commute is very difficult. It involves me rolling out of bed and getting around this traffic jam that is my dog, and then wandering into the spare bedroom that is my office.

I usually pet the dog to pass the time during the commute.

[Redlass]

I do a lot of pre-writing in my head. So on the rare, rare times when I'm in traffic (I have a 10-minute commute and usually my husband is with me, so we talk; but that wouldn't be very helpful for your situation 'cause I'm not sharing my husband), I work on pre-writing whatever writing project I'm currently working on. I'm usually able to figure out a lead and then play around with it in my head for a while to see if I can build the body of the piece from that particular lead or whether there is a more creative way to handle it.

[Grouch]

I agree with the Ocular One, NPR is a traffic jam's best friend.

Especially if the station happens to be playing Terry Gross' Fresh Air program...or, even more appropriately, Click 'n Clack (Car Talk).


Terry Gross: bar none, the best voice on the air--fresh, stale or otherwise.

By the way, even Salon.com agrees with me: colleagues speak of her with reverence, as do her listeners, many of whom say "Fresh Air" is their favorite part of the day or the only thing that gets them through a long commute .

[theeye]

Yup, I listen to Fresh Air every evening. Great show.

I also really like Brian Lehrer, though I never get to hear him any more. He's a fantastic interviewer: very evenhanded (you really can't pin down his personal politics at all) and manages to be simultaneously civil, incisive and tough regardless of the guest.

I was really annoyed when they replaced the evening reprise of his show with that incredibly annoying The Connection (though it's gotten better since they got rid of Christopher Lydon -- he always got on my nerves).

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I take the train. Saves my sanity since I can read all I want, do my makeup, cut nasty looks at the loud cell-phone users, and occasionally listen to NPR (if I remember my headphones).

I recommend audio books, talk radio, meditating on one's life plan, practicing presentations or important conversations that are coming up, and planning dinnner

[mrisch[$]]

All DMB, All the time. I also have a convertible, which lessens the pain.

[pluckyduck]

I live a 10 minute drive from work...and Don drives me to work. I'm usually listening to him not listening to me.

"Yes, Dear"

Andrea

[soxfan[$]]

I also take the train in. It's a 45-minute trip one way (plus a 15-minute walk to the station), which isn't bad. One of my old jobs imposed a commute twice that long. *wincing in recollection* Music and/or some sort of reading material are usually enough to get me through.

Ailsa
who blesses the inventor of the CD player

[kurt_messick]

I've been doing a regular 1 1/2 hour each way commute for the past four years. I know the roads so well that it has become meditative to drive. I often have NPR or some soft-music channel on, or just go in silence. My last car had a CD player, and I was able to have a variety of music. Alas, no such joy in this car.

[phoenixx]

When I work outside the home office, I do a variety of things to keep my sanity.

My 10 disc CD changer was one of my best purchases ever, as it keeps the music ever changing and not as boring as one CD, or one radio playlist, or one tape.

I also learn languages by tape or CD in the car (Which I'm sure looks really funny as I sit there talking to myself and soudning things out). I am currently trying to teach myself French.

I am a writer, and carry my little minirecorder everywhere, so frequently I will talk out a passage or chapter or poem, or just record an idea for later while I drive.

Sometimes I turnit all off and listen to the quiet - it's nice.

Sometimes I take the top off the Jeep and just enjoy the day - also nice.

I do listen to NPR occasionally, but as a rule talk radio irritates me, even when it's good. I don't enjoy being talked at, read out loud to, etc.

Leslie

[poseidon]

Ah see now when I'm out and about on claims, I thrive on Talk Radio. Even if I don't agree with what's going on, it makes me think. About the only two things I can't stand with Talk Radio is when a caller won't let the host respond (because they never shut up and keep interrupting) or when there's nothing on except Dr. Laura (due to the mountains interfering with reception) and I have to listen to the same, tired old story:

Caller: Hi Dr. Laura! You're my favorite, and I listen to you every single day. I have a moral dilemna...

Notice that every darned caller has a friggin' "moral dilemna" -- I can't help but wonder if the screener tells callers to use the words "moral dilemna" if they want to be on the air.

Dr. Laura: Hi Caller! What's your problem?

Caller: Well, the boyfriend that I'm shacking up with and having sex with in front of my two young daughters told me he was going to quit his job and wanted to live off of my AFDC checks. Is that okay?

[pageclot[$]]

My commute is 86 miles each way (144 km for you fellow Canadians). I do it twice a week on average, and it usually takes 2 hours each way.

Things I do during a typical commute:

- listen to the sound of the wind rushing through the rust holes in the Toyota, and wonder how long before I have to replace it, and also wonder how I'll sell the idea of a Volkswagen minibus (it's really practical! it'll be great for trips! and if I get stuck in traffic I can just pull over, pop the top and have a nap!).

- listen to the local Howard Stern replacement when he's not acting too much like an idiot.

- once I'm stuck in a traffic jam, turn on the News/Weather/Sports station to find out I'm in a traffic jam

- change my voice mail at work repeatedly, putting the emphasis subtly on different words

- browse the web on my phone, reading very unhelpful web clips ("The Liberal government admits mistakes in awarding contracts", "US takes hard line on soft wood")

- and, very frequently, I'll just zone out and not think a thing until I get to work.

P

[vonboob]

Oh, there is someone doing more milage than I do! And it's a fellow compatriot, what a surprise... P bits my drive by about 15 miles (24 km). But, I do it five, sometimes six days a week.

...and, very frequently, I'll just zone out and not think a thing until I get to work...

Dido; so the other things and one thing to add: classical music never get's boring. There is respite (and I dare say a pleasure) if the weather allows to take my bike (Suzuki GSX-R1000). If it were not for amount of grief my wife gives me, I'd ride it in rain too...

Also while returning home, I drive way too fast so looking out for speed traps is very rewarding!