First off, I know I have been MIA almost all month, no I did not die at my birthday party, I even managed to make it to brunch the following morning at a reasonable hour. Work has been nuts (I have hired and fired about 6 people in the last 3 weeks) and of course it is the Holiday season. This year will not be as crazy as last year was (at least for me) when it comes to the Holidays but there is still a lot to do. I hope that I can get back on a usual blogging schedule as well because as I have said it helps me de-stress and deal with all of the crazy days.
I am back in Boston now, and back to work today after a few days off in New York with the family. It is always good to go home even if it is for a short period of time. I love my family even if they drive me nuts and I love being home for the holidays. When and if that day comes when I am not in New York with the family on the holidays it will be weird. I drove down to New York on Thursday morning, and I think that was one of my biggest mistakes.
I haven't driven my car in close to two months for a number of reasons. I started it every once in a while, but didn't even drive it around the block. But it is getting cold now, and I needed to drive to New York for the holiday so it was time to put the car back on the road. I am however, a notoriously bad driver, my friends hate when I am the driver. Not because I do things horribly wrong behind the wheel but because my vision is bad, I don't know my left from my right and some people think I drive to fast while others think I drive to slow. Also, I am always on the phone and even when I am not I never have both hands on the wheel. So add to these weaknesses some heavy traffic and for the first time driving for a long distance with my contacts in and we are pretty much waiting for a disaster.
I left at 10:15 in the morning and the first 30 minutes was smooth sailing until I got to 495 and the traffic began. Now I have admitted that I am a bad driver but the people on the road on Thursday morning were ridiculous. People were flying up the shoulder of the road, forcing themselves into already packed lanes, cutting people off and stomping on their breaks inches from the car in front of them. I was making a valiant effort to avoid impending catastrophes by calmly listening to my music and remaining off of my phone, but as the hours passed and traffic wasn't moving I became more and more frustrated and ever so bored. So I began dancing to my I-Pod (the new once since my bag at work was stolen) and making phone calls to wish people a happy turkey day (gobble gobble). At this point I ma three hours into a trip that normally takes three hours and I am at least 90 minutes from my destination.
Through Hartford I am traveling at about 85 miles an hour in the center lane and I still have people up my ass and passing me all over. Trucks are flying down the right lane an barrelling practically into the trunks of compact cars. Older couples are merging into the highway at 30 miles per hour and accelerating to 40. I am exhausted, my knee hurts and I fear for the lives of some of these people on the road, especially since I have witnessed at least 4 close calls.
When I finally make it all the way through to Waterbury, traffic stops, like a dead stop that you see in the cartoons where all the cars pile up onto one another. we sit and don't move. I am stressed because I am missing so much time with my family, and I have to pee so bad. We are not moving and all I see ahead of me is bright red tail lights, all of the drivers seen as frustrated as I am and are doing very stupid things. My blood boils for over an hour as I sit in traffic, my stomach is churning because I haven't eaten. I am saving myself for Thanksgiving dinner after all. It looks like traffic is about to break, I can see flashing lights from police cars, and bright spotlights on the road, as I drive closer I notice that there are trees all over the road, nice trees not branches, as a matter of fact, it appears a Christmas Tree truck has lost its entire load of trees all over 84. Tis the season!
It is close to 5:00pm when myself and my car stagger into my aunt's house for dinner. I am exhausted but it is good to see family, and I am glad that I made it home, I can only hope that all the other bad drivers on the road that day made it home as well.
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