Traffic

skittledoo

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#1
Omg I can't handle it

I was supposed to be at work at 7. I'm now 40 minutes late and I'm nowhere near close to work. This traffic is terrible and I'm goinf to end up being a few hours late.

My car hasn't moved in 5 minutes which is the only way I'm on here. Have I mentioned traffic is one of my major anxiety triggers to the point where I've been known to hyperventalate until I throw up?

I'm listening to country music and practicing my breathing techniques to calm myself down but knowing I'm probably going to get in trouble at work just isn't helping matters.
 

BostonBanker

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#2
Have you called work to explain the situation? Stuff happens. They know that. But letting them know so they can adjust things is considerate.
 

skittledoo

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#3
Ya I called them as soon as I got in bad traffic. No one at work really cares about being late for that reason except for our asst manager. She is out if town right now though so I should be fine.

I made it. 2 hours late.
 

ACooper

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#4
Holy moly! I hate traffic........HATE IT. I can totally understand road rage when I'm in traffic! LOL

Glad you made it, 2 hours late or not!
 

skittledoo

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#5
Haha at least I got caught up pretty quickly with all the invoices at work. I'm covering in the office part of the dog daycare today since the person who usually takes this position is in Italy right now.
 

eddieq

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#6
My brother used to live in Woodbridge and drive into DC to work. He always said that the commute was nearly 2 hours on most days. My daily commute is 1 hour each way, but I have a nearly unlimited number of back roads and alternate routes if one of them gets banged up.

Glad you made it!
 

Doberluv

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#7
Glad you finally made it. Yeah, bad traffic drives me batty too....I'm so not use to it. Two or even one hour commute is awful. My daughter, who lives in west Seattle drives to down town Seattle for work. If there is no traffic, it is a 10 minute drive. In the morning though, it can take her 1/2 to 1 hour to get there. I think it's better if she takes the bus since they can use those bus lanes. But sometimes the bus comes late. The public transportation in Seattle is horrible!

I wish you could find an alternate route.

Yeah, somehow you have to dissipate those pent up, anxious feelings. I know I've become more tolerant since I moved here from the toolies. I just try and get into my music or take in the scenery. If the mountains are out...Puget Sound glistening in the sun, then it's not too bad. Sometimes I nearly go off the road looking at the mountains. lol.
 

Southpaw

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#8
Ohhh I've totally had that happen before. My 20 minute commute turned into a 1.5 hour commute. It's the worst. Thankfully my new job has me going in the opposite direction of traffic lol. Glad you made it, stuff happens!
 

RedHotDobe

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#9
DC area traffic drives me crazy. I had to leave the Rockville area last week and come up to Bel Air. It was 6:30 and 495 sucked, as is to be expected. I got to 95 and it was moving pretty good for awhile. Then I passed one of the overhead information signs and it said 95-N was closed, all lanes. Um, what. I creeped my way up to 895 and took that around past the tunnel. Every single time I drive the S4 any significant distance I hit heavy traffic. Someone hates me.

Coming back from Virginia on a Sunday one night around 11, 66 was stopped. 495 wasn't really moving. How is that even possible??

I'm glad you finally made it. Traffic makes me yell at people.
 

BlackPuppy

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#10
Me too! I used to live in Chicago, but I got tired of spending 4 hours of my day in a car.
 

Doberluv

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#11
Heh, heh...my daughter went to visit her cousins in Chicago. When one of those cousins lived here in Seattle temporarily, she told Emily that Chicago traffic was worse than Seattle. My daughter said, "No way...nothing could be worse than Seattle." Well, her cousin just dropped it and waited for Emily to visit. And sure enough, she got to experience Chicago traffic and told me, "yep...it was wa-a-a-ay worse. LOL. It's hard to imagine. It's funny...downtown Seattle isn't really that bad most of the time. It's the freeways getting in and out that are bad. Up north, in the city I live in, at certain times of the day, I swear it's worse than downtown Seattle. And it's a smaller city...just not designed for the growth that has taken place in the last decade or two.

I wouldn't want to spend that many hours in my car either. It's nice when you can drive against traffic, like if your work hours are different from everyone else's.
 

Puckstop31

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#12
Reason #1 why I could never live/work in the NOVA/DC area. I have had really nice offers to go work for various .gov agencies because of my clearance/vet/geek status. Nope. LOL I recall a Sunday afternoon in July, coming back from Disney. 4 hours to go like 15 miles on 95. Absurd. I could walk faster than that. LOL

As convienient as the automobile is, they sure bring out the worst in people, eh? I know they bring out the worst in me.
 
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#13
Driving 75 miles -- one way -- to work, on I-40 and I-75 everyday was . . . interesting. The patron saint of the Knoxville metro area is Our Lady of Perpetual Construction. I had several routes I could use, getting from here to LaFollette totally on surface roads. One morning of sitting on I-75N for 2 hours was enough.
 

JessLough

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#14
Have you called work to explain the situation? Stuff happens. They know that. But letting them know so they can adjust things is considerate.
Should be glad you don't work for me :p I don't buy the traffic excuse, and have given people **** for it before. Check traffic in the morning and leave accordingly to get to work on time is my rule CD

Traffic sucks. Glad you finally got there.
 

BlackPuppy

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#15
And sure enough, she got to experience Chicago traffic and told me, "yep...it was wa-a-a-ay worse. LOL.

Guess where I moved to after leaving Chicago...SEATTLE! I used to laugh when people complained about the traffic. LOL!

Not there anymore, though. No traffic where I live now. I have a 10 minute commute
 

darkchild16

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#16
Should be glad you don't work for me :p I don't buy the traffic excuse, and have given people **** for it before. Check traffic in the morning and leave accordingly to get to work on time is my rule CD

Traffic sucks. Glad you finally got there.
You cant plan an accident though. Jeremy was headed home one night and should have been here about 2 hrs before he did. A house along the highway caught fire and the firetrucks had the road blocked and there isnt a detour.
 

CaliTerp07

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#17
Ughh....that SUCKS. Traffic is definitely the worst part of living here.

The best gift I ever bought myself was a GPS with traffic updates on it. Now everytime there is an accident, it pops up and says "40 minute delay, alternate route found that is 27 minutes faster. Would you like to re-route?" Why yes, tom tom, I would...thank you for asking.

My life is SO MUCH LESS STRESSFUL thanks to that little device. Especially now that I'm in a job where it just isn't an option to be late. I used to be able to sneak in 15 minutes late to my desk job, but you can't get away with being 15 minutes late to a class of 30 13 year olds!
 
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#18
If I wind up going back to commuting (which I really hope I do, working in Knoxville would get me the hell out of here), I'm definitely replacing my old CB. That kept me out of more hassles than anything. You not only know what traffic is coming up, but road conditions, and where the cops are hiding.
 

skittledoo

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#19
Should be glad you don't work for me :p I don't buy the traffic excuse, and have given people **** for it before. Check traffic in the morning and leave accordingly to get to work on time is my rule CD

Traffic sucks. Glad you finally got there.
Not sure what it's like where you live, but out here even looking up the traffic report before you leave to make sure you leave on time isn't a guarantee to avoid you from running into the unexpected along the way. The traffic can be running smoothly while you're on the road and then wham bam it stops for some reason or another and often for no reason at all. People that live out here understand what I mean. I see more accidents on the roads out here than anywhere I've ever lived and a lot of people just can't drive worth a darn in these parts. Seriously, the Northern VA/DC area has some of the worse traffic in the entire US. I don't normally work this shift. I usually work 5:30am-1:30am or 11:30am-7:30pm and therefore avoid the major traffic times plus I always give myself more time then usually needed to get to work in the first place. It takes me 45 minutes on a given day to get to work. I usually leave an hour and a half early, yet I was still about 2 hours late. That gives you an idea how bad the traffic was. Luckily my boss is understanding of this area and she didn't care.
 

skittledoo

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#20
Reason #1 why I could never live/work in the NOVA/DC area. I have had really nice offers to go work for various .gov agencies because of my clearance/vet/geek status. Nope. LOL I recall a Sunday afternoon in July, coming back from Disney. 4 hours to go like 15 miles on 95. Absurd. I could walk faster than that. LOL

As convienient as the automobile is, they sure bring out the worst in people, eh? I know they bring out the worst in me.

HAHAHA 95 seriously sucks a lot of the time. I use to have to make these long commutes every day for about 3 years when I used to work in McLean, VA. Vowed never again to get stuck with a job with that commute. You couldn't pay me enough. Now that we moved further away the commute sucks. The only reason why I haven't changed jobs yet is because we don't know where we are eventually going to get a house in the next few months. I'm hoping to move a little further away from this area though.
 

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