The commute.

Unless you work from home, chances are you have a commute. It might be across town, down the street, or into a different time zone, but once you leave your house for the office you are a “commuter.” I should know, I am one…every day.

When I tell people about my commute it normally will stop them in their tracks.(No pun intended since I take the train.) They say, “How do you get there, do you drive or train it?” (“Train it” is commuter lingo by the way.) When I started my job in November I had a plan as to how I was going to make this as smooth as possible; so far the plan has worked out very well. Sure there have been a few glitches, but all in all, it’s no big deal.

My day starts out at 5:02. (Why 5 AM when you can feel like you are sleeping an additional 2 minutes.) I get up, check my e-mail, make coffee, and feed the dog. Sometimes the dog wins and he gets fed before I do anything else---just depends on how tired I am. For the next 43 minutes I will either do sit ups, read something online or wish I were still sleeping. I am sure you can guess which one I would prefer and the one I never give into. It’s the same one by the way.

After my shower I am out the door at 6:15 for a walk to the train station. The train I take comes in at 6:28 and arrives into Chicago at 7:05. I then walk down to the food court, get coffee---I am still tired---and then catch the 7:25 to my office. I arrive at 7:50. If you do the math, and I have done it, my commute to the office is 1 hour 20 minutes. (Plus the walk to the train station from my house---that is what I call the “getting psyched” time.)

Oh by the way, every night I do the opposite as I did in the morning.

If you think this sound bad, I work with a guy who has an additional 20 minutes on his commute both ways. Not bad enough? For a number of years there was an on air personality in town who would commute from Dallas to Chicago every day for his radio show. He did this 5 days a week. Why didn’t he stay over? I have no idea. But I cannot imagine how hard this commute must be on your body until I figured out---it is about a 2 and ½ hour commute each way. (That’s only about an hour more than I commute each way.)

So whether you commute by car, bus, bike, train or airplane you have a routine and it is one you have to stick with or it will drive you crazy. On my commute each day, I write “Snap.Shot.” I write it on one leg of the trip and then edit it on the last leg of the trip going home. My most memorable night? On November 18^th I learned as I was catching the last train of my commute that my Mom had passed away. I believe I wrote my best blog to date that evening---it is a train ride I will never forget.

The photo above was taken outside the train station I commute from in Evanston, IL---I was at the Northwestern basketball game and wanted to make sure I was there in time for the next train. I was 20 minutes early; it was snowing and cold, but with camera in hand, I captured some photos I really enjoyed. The woman in this photo had no idea I was taking her picture. Maybe she was thinking about dinner, the warmth of being inside, or how long she had to commute?

Thanks for stopping by.