Off to the wilds of New Jersey tomorrow
Yup, this is the weekend of my roommate-from-college's wedding. I am not looking forward to the drive.
It's weird, but the DC-NY drive used to be nothing to me. When I lived in NYC, I'd do it after work on Friday -- no problem. Just come to DC for the weekend. And when I went to Rutgers (which is, granted, closer to DC than where I am going tomorrow), it was cake. In fact, I used to race myself and try and best my flight time each time I made the trip. I'd measure my time from exit to exit -- because we all know that those suburban streets slow you down -- and my best college driving time was 2 hours and 39 minutes from exit 9 on the turnpike to where my folks live. It's a straight shot up/down Interstate 95... going 75 MPH the entire way. Never mind that it's something more than 200 miles... I had my route down pat. Cake. Timing my personal best helped tick off the miles so the driving seemed less tedious. I also remember that I once told my father about my 2hr 39m commute -- and his reaction was: "You know your car is only 4 cylinders, don't you?" Yes, but it was a fiesty little car!
But I digress...
Anyway, no low-flying and artful dodging for me tomorrow. Not this time. I'm taking the road less travelled -- because I just don't want to deal with all the tolls and commuter traffic around DC, Baltimore, Philly and the entire NJ Turnpike. I must be getting old; I have no patience for the traffic -- and I'm blogging about it! (yawn) Instead, I'll be cutting through PA rather than going up NJ. It's about 30 miles longer, but I expect it to be faster because I'll be avoiding the big cities. I'm even taking off work early to avoid the congestion. And get this (a true sign of my ancientness), I scoured the internet for free, downloadable audiobooks to compensate for the dead tune zones I'm likely to encounter along the way. Once I started looking, I was surprised to find that there are a lot of free books out there, and I found some stuff that I thought might be interesting.
Of course, to be free, the books had to be in the public domain, and in order to be in the public domain, well, they pretty much had to be at least a hundred or so years old. So I'll be catching up on the classics... and if that doesn't work out so well, I'll have my iPod loaded with my drivin' tunes... Which I'll probably need because I haven't done a road trip since before law school. And while I generally consider myself a very strong driver, I'm a bit outta practice for the upcoming 5 hour journey, especially since it's supposed to rain. Bleck.
But I'm definitely looking forward to seeing both former college roommies. I'll be staying with one and going to the wedding of the other. The who is getting married -- I haven't seen her in years. And while I just saw the other one in December, I haven't seen her hubby (who is also of college vintage) and her two kids for years.
It's gonna be a good visit. I'm looking forward to seeing them and exclaiming how none of us has aged a bit since we graduated...
It's weird, but the DC-NY drive used to be nothing to me. When I lived in NYC, I'd do it after work on Friday -- no problem. Just come to DC for the weekend. And when I went to Rutgers (which is, granted, closer to DC than where I am going tomorrow), it was cake. In fact, I used to race myself and try and best my flight time each time I made the trip. I'd measure my time from exit to exit -- because we all know that those suburban streets slow you down -- and my best college driving time was 2 hours and 39 minutes from exit 9 on the turnpike to where my folks live. It's a straight shot up/down Interstate 95... going 75 MPH the entire way. Never mind that it's something more than 200 miles... I had my route down pat. Cake. Timing my personal best helped tick off the miles so the driving seemed less tedious. I also remember that I once told my father about my 2hr 39m commute -- and his reaction was: "You know your car is only 4 cylinders, don't you?" Yes, but it was a fiesty little car!
But I digress...
Anyway, no low-flying and artful dodging for me tomorrow. Not this time. I'm taking the road less travelled -- because I just don't want to deal with all the tolls and commuter traffic around DC, Baltimore, Philly and the entire NJ Turnpike. I must be getting old; I have no patience for the traffic -- and I'm blogging about it! (yawn) Instead, I'll be cutting through PA rather than going up NJ. It's about 30 miles longer, but I expect it to be faster because I'll be avoiding the big cities. I'm even taking off work early to avoid the congestion. And get this (a true sign of my ancientness), I scoured the internet for free, downloadable audiobooks to compensate for the dead tune zones I'm likely to encounter along the way. Once I started looking, I was surprised to find that there are a lot of free books out there, and I found some stuff that I thought might be interesting.
Of course, to be free, the books had to be in the public domain, and in order to be in the public domain, well, they pretty much had to be at least a hundred or so years old. So I'll be catching up on the classics... and if that doesn't work out so well, I'll have my iPod loaded with my drivin' tunes... Which I'll probably need because I haven't done a road trip since before law school. And while I generally consider myself a very strong driver, I'm a bit outta practice for the upcoming 5 hour journey, especially since it's supposed to rain. Bleck.
But I'm definitely looking forward to seeing both former college roommies. I'll be staying with one and going to the wedding of the other. The who is getting married -- I haven't seen her in years. And while I just saw the other one in December, I haven't seen her hubby (who is also of college vintage) and her two kids for years.
It's gonna be a good visit. I'm looking forward to seeing them and exclaiming how none of us has aged a bit since we graduated...
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