Could Have Driven

I had to be at the airport this morning by 7:30—although I got there at 7:00—for a three-hour workshop I was teaching, and then need to be up in Bothell, at Cascadia, to teach at 1:15.

I could have driven south, then north, and saved myself some sleep and maybe some anxiety, but I’m glad now that I managed to catch the 194 bus to Sea-Tac, then taxi back downtown in time to hop on Sound Transit out to school; I’m on it right now, taking advantage of the onboard wi-fi, and, just so long as the driver doesn’t veer off into a ditch or Lake Union, I should be at my desk in plenty of time to prep for today’s ethics class.

This keeps alive my streak of not having driven to Cascadia in over a year; I went all of last year using either the bus or the bike; I guess this must matter to me more than I think it does; otherwise, I would have availed myself of the car in this, by far my most complex commute of the year.

As it is, though, I can remain smug and self-satisfied and, for that matter, less stressed out than I would have been fighting rushhour traffic on this rainy, windy November morning. Miles and miles of taillights showed in the distance outside the Metro coach’s big windows at 6:45AM, and nearly everyone I talked to as the workshop got underway had a complaint about what a miserable drive it was today.

Granted, there is a downside, which is that I felt compelled to rush away as soon as possible from the workshop; while this may have enhanced my mysterious presence as a presenter, it did result in my leaving behind three cheese graters I use as props and even worse, my Macintosh power supply, which, until I get back, means I must really ration my computer time and, for instance, stop right now.