Join me this month as I write a slice of my life each day this March and join many others sharing slices at twowritingteachers.com. My students will also be slicing this month and you can find links to their daily blogs HERE. This last Tuesday, I was called upon to show up at the "Jury Assembly Room" at the courthouse and do my civic duty. While I have been called for jury duty six or seven times, I have never actually sat on a jury, or even made it into the jury box and then been cut. But this time, it was my turn to sit on a jury for a civil trial and I spent Tuesday-Friday at the courthouse instead of my classroom. I learned many lessons this past week about, court proceedings, car accidents, back injuries, and procedures to stop back pain. Another thing I learned was, my normal commute is too short.
That's actually a ridiculous thing to say, but I think it might be true. My normal commute to work is about twelve minutes. With perfect lights, I can be there in ten and if traffic is "bad" it may take as long as seventeen minutes. To get to or from the courthouse, it should take twenty-one minutes according to GoogleMaps. My fastest time was over half-an-hour. I could count on being stuck in stop-and-go traffic for much of the time and usually allowed forty-five minutes, "just in case."
While I didn't enjoy driving in traffic, the time to just be by myself and prepare for or process the day was wonderful. I could listen to a couple of complete stories on NPR, or to other stations and know I would likely hear as much music as commercials or DJ talk. A timeout starting and ending the workday is what I may be missing in my life. So long as I didn't get all stressed about the traffic and other drivers, which I am getting better at as I approach forty, I felt relatively refreshed arriving to the courthouse or to home. There was time to let things come into and out of my brain. Time to process and discard. Time I HAD to spend on me. I may look for a longer route to work on Monday.
Traffic photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/196792901/">Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
Red Light photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicshark/1288380740/">atomicshark</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
So funny, but true, too. When I lived further out, I listened to tons of books in these past years. My only question, what about the gas? Have a nice Sunday!
ReplyDeleteNicely wordsmithed, Max! I think that's the one thing I do miss about living farther away from school - time for me (and NPR ; )
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