Commuting

You may or may not know that I travel for work. I travel a lot. I have been traveling for 6 years. Noodle is five and a half. I travel 4 or five days a week. I know my way around hotels and airports. Tourists, in general, bug me. When Noodle and I went to Disney last year I pre-packed snack packs for every day we were there so we never had to go the food kiosks for snacks because I travel like that. I had fruit and juice boxes and low sugar, high protein snacks we could enjoy while waiting an hour for a stupid Dumbo ride. I had light weight rain jackets and a change of clothes for Noodle in my back pack so when it poured and everyone else was running about we were dry and comfortable. Before I worked in corporate america I did logistics for a Hoods in the Woods program in PA. I know how to travel.

My idea of vacation is sleeping in my own bed.

We could move to a big city where I would no longer travel but Asheville has such a great standard of living we just can't do it. It's a give and take, I am not complaining (although sometimes I do), it is my reality.
A big part of my week is my commute. I leave at 4:30 on Monday mornings and I drive home after the worst of rush hour on Thursday nights. Of course I am trying to leave Atlanta so rush hour starts at 6 am and goes until 9 pm. This city has whack traffic. It's 200 miles from Atlanta to Asheville and after I hit Commerce, GA things get a little boring. So I call people. I call a lot of people. I call lots of people in my cell phone directory. I have certain times when I call certain people. It is like my Thursday night TV choice but it is talking on the phone instead. This is a true case of hitting middle age. I am not drinking and dialing, nor am I drinking and driving (nor would I) but I do a hybrid of the two, I drive and I dial. I have completely weird rules about calling beyond when I call certain people. If it is raining I will not use the phone. If there is no traffic I will call people and if there is a lot of traffic I will call people but moderate traffic or a few too many trucks I won't use my phone. If the sun is setting I won't talk on the phone. If the sun is rising I won't either but that's not ever really a problem. If there are too many minivans around I won't use the phone. I don't mind driving in Fulton county, GA but I am not a fan of using the phone in Gwinnett county, GA. These quirks go on and on.
I call Kara first, always, because she goes to bed first, or at least Baby Buffalo does. I don't call her after 8 pm anymore.
Then I call Hubby but he is always sort of a pain in the ass on Thursday nights so we usually don't talk long. Hubby gets cranky (Yes, honey, you do). He has valid reasons (besides that he hasn't gotten laid for a week). Hell, he single parents while working full time 4 days a week. Not easy work, not at all.
After those two, if traffic is at a standstill I call Lynn. Lynn has a book coming out tomorrow. Lynn is probably my most successful friend and that is because she is really smart and witty and fun (actually most of my friends are smart and witty and fun so I am not sure why she is the most successful). She is a black belt (real black belt, not a six sigma black belt) and I love visiting her in New York because:
she is a bad ass, she slinks and is very sexy and people stare at her. I get to slink vicariously through her and we like drinking Sake together. Or just hanging out together. We can talk and talk and talk. I went to a sake bar in NYC with her last January and it was lovely in a drunk kind of way. I don't remember the name of it but I do remember eating Japanese bar food and somehow getting back to Newark.
Lynn won't talk to me on the phone if traffic is moving more than 3 miles an hour. Read her book. Buy her book, just don't call her if your car is moving faster than 3 miles an hour.
Next I will often call a variety of people: My BFF is up in Plainview, NY. I have three friends in Asheville whose phone numbers are in my cell phone. Most of the co-workers I have who I would actually talk with outside of work are travelling but I can often get a hold of my friend Kelly, which is nice. We haven't worked together for awhile but she kicks ass. My cousin K8 and I can kill 45 minutes on the phone without thinking about it. My brother Hobbit and I can kill about 8 minutes.
I am now approaching the 9:30 time frame and can call Amy. Just as I don't call Kara after the Baby Buffalo goes to bed, I don't call Amy until her kids are asleep. She is my only late night east coast calling person and she is insanely popular so half the time she is drinking entertaining so I only get to talk with her periodically.
Then I have a lull in driving and dialing. Once it is 10 or 11, I can call Hell. She is in the pacific time zone. She has a new blog called Phoodie. She cooks and it is all about cooking. The way I obsess about my moustache, she obsesses about food. I need more people in the more western time zones. I think she might be getting sick of me because she drives a gazillion miles everyday and is exhausted when she gets home. But I call anyway. It is, after all, all about me.
This is the only day of the week I talk to anyone. Over the weekend I don't call anyone, during the week I work too much to call anyone. So it is Thursday night. I have noticed I either talk to lots of people or noone is available. I think I should start sending out questionaires about why people weren't available on Thursday nights so I can see a trend. It is strange how people tend to trend the same way, everyone is available or noone. So, let me know if you want me to call, it will between 7 pm and midnight EST but only on Thursdays.