Sprizee :: A simple girl replete with complications

This American Life: Now free!

Why did it take me until yesterday to hear about This American Life offering free Podcasts?  I guess God really does want me to keep riding the bus.  Okay God. You keep me entertained with Ira Glass narratives and I promise to carpool with a bunch of insensitive strangers who never think about carrying an umbrella, get soaked waiting for the bus, and then decide to park their soggy ass on the seat next to me.  Deal.

Transfer Station

Today I woke up early and caught the express from downtown only to get stuck on the side of 520 and watch as 23 non-express buses breezed by right before the replacement bus stopped behind our disabled ass and I had to switch buses on the side of a freeway, in rush hour traffic. 

Welcome to my own personal hell.

The SR 520 Bridge

At the heart of Seattle’s traffic congestion is SR 520 – one of Puget Sound’s major arteries for transporting people and goods. One of the oldest floating bridges in the world, the SR 520 Evergreen Point Bridge is at the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced for the safety of the traveling public. If this bridge were to suffer a seismic failure, travel time between downtown and Seattle and Redmond would nearly double from an average of 33 minutes to 55 minutes.

Um, we must have had a seismic failure like 2 plus years ago because my commute takes a hell of a lot longer than 33 minutes. Hell, it takes more than 55 minutes. 55 minutes? Where the hell do I sign up for that? I'll take a 55 minute commute any day of the week because it still beats my hour plus commute, each way on a daily basis.

And don't get confused. When they said "at the end of its useful life" they were referring to the life in which the bridge served as a means to get from point A to point B. Because let’s not mince words. It’s still got a full time life devoted solely to the purpose of sucking the soul of each and every person that has to sit on it, in traffic, the non-moving variety. Oh joy! I can't wait until they built that Monorail, you know, so I can continue to sit and traffic.

Just in case you're not from Seattle and don't know what I'm talking about, let me break it down like this...

[Insert witty title here]

I vowed to finish my marketing budget today if it kills me which is why I'm still at the office. Oh yes. And god seems to have a wicked sense of humor because normally at this hour on a Friday traffic would suck major ass but as fate would have it 520 is a ghost town. Apparently people are scared by the threat of snow, ice, and/or a horrible car crash. Wusses.

In other news, I might die soon.

Copy Kitty

Driving to work. Blatantly ripping off Murphy.

Phat Daddy deserves a beat down

Yesturday, on my way to work while driving across Lake Washington I noticed this guy weaving in and out of traffic on the 520 floating bridge. He was tailgating and switching lanes like he was playing a video game on fast forward. Anyway, the point is that's not why he deserves a beat down. He deserves a beat down because his license plate is "PHATDDY".


Sorry, I didn't get the plate which was on the back, but I think I did a damn fine job taking this photo considering a) I wasn't looking when I took it b) I wasn't looking when I took it and c) refer to a and b.

520 Westbound

The only good thing about my commute.

*Yes, I took this photo while driving.

I (no) heart traffic.

All I can think about is soon I will be leaving the office and this will inevitably lead to me sitting on 520 in traffic - parking lot style, slow moving, frustration city traffic. I fucking hate traffic. STUPID. FUCKING. TRAFFIC.

Things I'd rather do besides sit in traffic:

Run (I went running at 5:20 thinking when I got back at 6:20 the traffic would be gone. No such luck.)

Work (By work, I mean sit in front of my computer and write personal email to my friends.)

Be forced to write without the use of parenthesis. (One, have you noticed how much I use parenthesis, and two I don't think that's physically possible. I might just spontaneously combust or something if I am forbidden from using the lovely and amazing (and not to mention versitile!) parenthesis.)

Have my heart broken (I take that one back. Maybe traffic isn't so bad after all.)