My Commute

My first real job was in Orlando, working for a home building company.  I was constantly on the move, we had 5 or 6 projects going on in two counties.  There were several years were I drove 40,000 miles without leaving a three county area. During the 15 years I worked for builders I lived where I wanted to - the job site changed at the whim of management.  Sometimes I was close to home, usually I was 30-60 minutes away.  The first year we lived in Kentucky I worked 2 miles from home, an easy commute, even with poorly designed streets and stupid drivers.  Then I commuted to law school for three years, 82 miles from our garage to the parking garage at school.  After law school I worked 4-5 miles from home, a drive that typically took 30+ minutes due to a poorly designed road system and the above mentioned worst drivers in the eastern half of the USA (even worse than Maryland and that takes some doing.) I grew to hate the commute, I dreamed of living in a place with mass transit, of sitting back and reading and not having traffic and idiots to contend with.  When I was offered the job in Washington DC, I was thrilled, I said yes on the spot.  I rented for a year a block from the Crystal City Metro station, then bought a condo a 10 minute walk from the Huntington Metro station.  On the other end the station is 8 stories below my desk.  

I love my commute.  The subway system has its moments of being dysfunctional.  But at its worst, it still beats fighting traffic and idiot drivers.  

Do you love your commute or hate it?