Archive for April, 2006

photo by me

I’ve written about my drives to work and how scary they can be because I’m surrounded by huge pickups and SUVs my entire drive.

Things have changed recently. I’m stilly surrounded by all of those vehicles but my driving has changed.

I like to drive fast. It’s exhilerating. It’s exciting. It’s like living on the edge and taking a chance.

I realized, though, that I’m burning more gas doing that. I also realized that I get this aggressive feeling going when I do so and then I get that road rage thing seeping into me. That’s scary.

But what really made me think about it was a faculty member here at the university. I was working with her on setting up a blog for one of her courses. We started talking about the things she’ll be discussing and how it will be used in the course.

She works in geography and spends a lot of time working in transportation and planning. She watches traffic patterns. She pays attention to the ways things work within traffic.

She told me that the speed limits aren’t arbitrary. They are set up for many reasons, including safety and good traffic flow. She told me that when people speed, it really screws up the way traffic flows and that’s why we have traffic jams.

So I started thinking about it.

And I started leaving home about ten minutes earlier just to test it all out.

I’ve noticed a few things.

First, I’m not as stressed. Even when someone cuts me off (which they seem to do more because I’m just not speeding with the rest of them), I laugh it off. I’m going to get there. I’ll be safe when I do. And I won’t have a knot in my stomach.

Second, I tend to drive in a relatively car-free zone. People are speeding around me and passing me, leaving me to have the entire area to myself. That’s kind of nice.

And third, I don’t sit at lights a whole lot. I tend to cruise right through them.

This does work better during the morning hours when the roads are a little less busy than the evening but even then, it still works pretty much the same.

I’ve removed a stressor from my life.

And it was easy.

photo by me

Originally published on my main site: life inchoate

Yesterday, in a discussion with the press, President Bush threw a slight temper tantrum. He stated,

“I hear the voices and I read the front page and I hear the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best.”

Okay, first of all, he’s finally admitting that he hears those little voices.

DUDE…that’s an illness. Get some serious help. I mean, really.  I can forgive Bush if he’s hearing voices and acting on his illness. But he can’t be president anymore.

Time to get out.

And “the decider”??? What the heck?

Okay, my seven-year-old niece doesn’t even say, “I’m the decider and I decide.” No, she says, “I’m the leader and I choose.”

That sounds more like a young kid throwing a tantrum than it does the President of a nation. But, then again, we’ve never had a President quite like Bush, have we? Maybe he is a big five-year-old….ala Tom Hanks in Big. Huh.

Seriously, though. “I’m the decider.”

I was in my car, listening to that, and laughed all the way home.

photo by me

Originally published on my main site: life inchoate

I have an office at work. I know. I’m fortunate. There are millions and millions of people out there forced to work in the cubicle culture and I have an office.

It doesn’t have any windows. In fact, it’s an internal office.

But it’s an office. And I love it. It’s cozy and comfortable. All of my furniture is made of wood, which I love. I have waited patiently until the right wood desk came available and I pounced on it. I searched for a few months for the right wood bookcase and it finally showed up in campus surplus.

I don’t use the overhead flourescents to light my office. I have two 60w lamps that are also wood (and match, coincidentally) to light up my office in a soft, warm glow.

Soon, I will have an aquarium converted into a terrarium to bring some green into my office.

I have some of my photographs on the wall.

I have a big white board with a drawing from Willow and a note from a former student worker on it (along with lists for work).

I love my office.

There is only one problem. The custodian ignores my office.

I come in daily and my garbage is full. It wasn’t emptied the night before. Other people will have theirs emptied but he doesn’t come into my office.

I’ve seen him. He has talked to me. In fact, he told me that he loves coming in to my office because he likes my photography.

But he doesn’t empty my garbage.

What the…??? It’s so odd.

I’ve found a way around by emptying it myself into a larger, more central trash bin. But still…

I’m not sure what is going on but it is the most odd thing.

Maybe I need to put up some new photography. Maybe he got bored.

Hmmm…