I live about 20 miles from work--depending on which way I go. Most of the time, it takes me between 20 and 40 minutes to get to work. Twenty to forty minutes between dropping the kids off and pulling into the parking lot at work. Not bad, considering I have to drive towards Boston during "rush" hour.
This year (and remember, as a teacher, years always begin in September) has been an absolute nightmare. Today was the first time all year it's taken me less than 45 minutes to drive to work. I was so early, I had no idea what to do with myself. The norm has been between 45 minutes and an hour. Wednesday's drive was an hour and 20 minutes. I had to call in and tell them to find someone to cover my homeroom.
The average speeds on I-24 have been about 20 mph and the expressway hasn't been much better. I'm going this way because our day care provider lives so close to I-24 that to go any other way would add a ton of time onto an already long drive. Traffic is so slow because there are so many cars on the road (obviously). It's like the number of cars doubled some time between the end of June and the beginning of September. The number of commuters has multiplied at least by two, quite possibly three. It is absolutely amazing, and I'm sure not mathematically possible. It's so frustrating. It really is. It takes so long to get to work and the drive is so boring. I took to downloading books onto my iPhone so that I can listen to them while I'm driving in.
Maybe boring is the wrong word. In the past month, I have been rear-ended twice. I haven't been in a car accident in absolute ages, but over the course of a three week period I was rear-ended twice.
The first time makes for rather an amusing story, actually. I was on the expressway at the last exit before Quincy, doing approximately 10 mph, when someone bumped me from behind. I pulled over onto the grassy area between the exit and entrance ramps to inspect the damage to my car. It was only a little bump, easily fixed. I looked up to see who hit me. It was a tall woman--early 20's. There was something about her that made me wonder.
She started off by telling me she was sorry and that she didn't know what had happened. We started to exchange information, but I couldn't stop staring at her.
"I had you in class, didn't I?" I asked as it sunk into my head that I did, indeed, know this person. It's just that the last time I saw her, she was sitting in my eighth grade honors language arts class about seven years ago.
She blushed and said, "You did, Ms. Bailey."
Turns out she's going to school to become a teacher.
I was, at least, chuckling about this before I pulled into the parking lot at work.
It's one of those stories that just gets funnier because the poor girl's cousin attends my school and does running club with two friends of mine. When they found out the relationship, one of them asked, "Hey! Didn't your cousin hit Ms. Bailey's car?"
No harm done. Just a little damage. I'm sure the girl was embarrassed. Imagine rear-ending your eighth grade English teacher. Even now, I'd be mortified if I ran into Mrs. Coughlin.
The second accident was not so harmless nor nearly as funny. This time I was rear-ended by a mail-lady; I'm not sure if this is important, but it's a fact. She smacked right into me, and we were going a bit more than 10 - 15 mph. She hit me so hard, I thought--just for a second--I'd popped the guy in front of me. I didn't, though, and when traffic started moving, he put a distance between us. I have to tell you that the damage to the bumper is not so little. It looks absolutely ugly. There's a bunch of damage that the insurance appraiser could see, and he promised that there was damage we couldn't see. He says his damage estimate will go up. He told me that the bumper has done its job well, but it certainly won't be able to do it again.
I walked away from this one--well, drove away. The thing was that I wasn't even smiling just a little bit about this one. And I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop since. Bad things come in threes, right? Let's just hope that it's not with the rental car I'll be sporting next week.
So Monday morning, I will be late to work because I have to drop my car off at the shop, get a rental car, and then try to get to work in time to teach my third period class. Fingers crossed this will happen.
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