(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Oh god, you guys, how did I spend six months commuting from Wrigleyville to Hyde Park?

For those unfamiliar with Chicago, this is not a painfully long distance in general terms -- between 12 and 16 miles, depending on how you drive, or between 70 and 90 minutes each way on public transit depending on whether you make your train and how fast your bus driver is. But my commute is now 20 minutes max, I catch my bus in a PARK, and I can't believe the difference.

For one thing, I don't spend every morning angry that my company moved us to the south side and I now have a 90 minute commute. I mean, I'm still not happy about it and I'm still insulted by the way in which they chose to pitch it -- bribing us with bullshit (a Chipotle, seriously) while giving us no say in the matter. I would rather they have said "This is shitty, we get it, but it's best for the company, and we need you to grit your teeth and join in" than "But it'll be so much better!" when it visibly wasn't going to be better for most of us and we already had access to a Chipotle.

But I'm no longer angry for 90 minutes of every morning, I no longer have to get up at 4:30 to get to work, and I no longer arrive home feeling like I need to disinfect my entire body after riding the 15 bus every day. Also I'm in a nicer apartment with possibly a ghost but no mice or wasps, and I have a sun room with a garden in my apartment, which is doing wonders for my mental state. (The nice apartment in general, not the garden in specific, but the garden too. My peppers sprouted yesterday, I'm so excited about the idea of making my own paprika.)

Mind you, I know I've been absentee here, and a large chunk of that is that work is increasingly demanding while another large chunk, I won't lie, is Tumblr. But Tumblr, much like Twitter, is not necessarily good for dialogue or for in-depth discussion of anything, so I'm trying to get back here as much as I can. (I find that as I get older I sometimes don't want dialogue, because arguing with 3000 people is exhausting, but that's not usually super relevant.)

Anyway. HI. I'm doing better. Even if this morning I had to teach Office Grandpa how to send a meeting in Outlook and it took way longer than it should have.

Comments

[raoin.livejournal.com]

a shorter commute can definitely make all the difference.
two years ago i went from an 90 minute commute through atlanta traffic, to a 30 minutes commute and i've been a nicer person for it. although, i do find it harder to keep up with my audio book in-take when i spend less time in my car. *shrug*

glad the new place is working out! :)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I definitely get less reading done, but then I sleep more so I understand more of what I do read :D

[last-raindrop.livejournal.com]

I am glad about the change in commute. A year ago I went from an hour and a half of subways, buses and taxis, to 5 minutes by bike. Improved my mood at work by a great deal. Problem is if you change location or job ever again to one that has a longer commute, you'll be pissed for a while.

I am quite curious about the possible ghost, however...any news on that front? Hehehe

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

No news yet on the ghost. I have discovered a switch on the wall which does nothing, which may in fact turn the ghost on and off....:D

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Cutting down a commute does wonders (as everyone else is already testifying). I went from a 40 minute + change in time zones (lost an hour in the morning, which was NOT fun) commute to the same time commute without the time change and thought that was good. Then I got a job in the same town I actually lived in, and holy crap, my mornings are SO MUCH BETTER. Even though my current job involves working with ridiculously incompetent people (Office Grandpa raised to the 10th power, x 10), every time I think about looking for another job, I'm like "but I'd have to drive 30-40 minutes to find something decent...I'll just deal."

I want to hear more about the ghost. And I demand pictures of the peppers.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

As soon as I get any actual peppers I will share, but here are the sprouts:

http://instagram.com/p/rsikWOstPW/

[sparkfrost.livejournal.com]

A shorter commute makes a world of difference. When my (now) husband and I moved into our apartment (that we just moved out of into our new home, yay!) it shortened my commute by more than 30 minutes. It used to take over an hour to get home from work, after we moved and if I timed it right, I could get home in 20. It makes a HUGE difference in your day, and I seriously don't get how people commute an hour to two hours each way. Mind-boggling.

[tabaqui]

Yay! Not being angry every morning is a huge thing. :) Congratulations on the pepper sprout! It's always so awesome when you see a seed you planted actually *growing*.

*waves*
Glad you're here!

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're happier in your new apartment with the more reasonable commute! Getting up at 4:30 and losing an hour and a half of your day each way sounds terrible.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

It didn't seem THAT terrible at the time, but looking back, yeah, it was pretty awful. D:

[jonaht.livejournal.com]

Yay, you're back! It's good to see that with this particular cloud of the company moving has a silver lining. ;D

[shezan.livejournal.com]

So glad to see you back, and with good news! Also, yayyy you for ejuketing Granpa! OUTLOOK!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I'm glad to hear about the much better commute! Yeah, that can make a huge difference.

Now what's this about a ghost? I'm hoping for a future post on that.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Mainly it's that every time I explained my new apartment to someone and how much (little) I was paying for it, they'd ask "Is it haunted?" so I started to assume I had a ghost. I blame Ghost when things in the apartment fight me, and talk to Ghost sometimes.

No major evidence of haunting has yet occurred, however :D

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

You have a garden and peppers sprouting? I would love to hear more about that and see pictures of plants and whatnot. Gardening is good for the soul! I am not at all surprised that you're happier where you are now.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

There's a shot of the peppers here:

http://instagram.com/p/rsikWOstPW/

It's all potted plants, seeing as it's growing on a terrace, but they do seem to be mainly thriving....

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cutting down your commute so significantly makes a hell of a lot of difference, doesn't it? Often it's really worth the rent increase to move closer to the city center or wherever it is you need to go. I'm so happy that you get the benefit of that, plus a hella-awesome apartment.

Tumblr is fun, but one cannot live on tumblr alone.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

I empathise: my current commute is 30 minutes car, 15 minutes bus and then a 15 minute walk... if it works, can take up to 70 minutes (or more if traffic is really bad on the way back)... so your 20 minute commute sounds awesome.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sounds awful. The transfers are the worst; part of how much better I'm doing is I don't have to change from train to bus halfway through.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

yeah, I agree... but it's better than being unemployed and I enjoy the job (and I get to read on the bus and, let's be honest, I need the exercise as well) - yep, trying to look at the positives...

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

On my most recent move I went from a train to a bus commute and found I have one of those bus commutes where if I vary my departure time by about 15 minutes, my commute length can vary by 30-45 minutes just based on how the traffic changes. Luckily work is OK if I come in closer to 9:30 than 9 so I can always err on the side of the shorter commute.

Speaking of Chicago neighborhoods though, have you seen https://www.behance.net/gallery/Slightly-Insulting-Chicago-Neighborhood-Posters/4555259

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I love Slightly Insulting Posters! (Well, ok, I think some of them are racist, but I like most of them :D)

Mine is Printer's Row -- "Your idea of a summer festival is a book fair. NERDS."

[ranuel.livejournal.com]

A Chipotle? As a selling point? Really? Ugh. They can't even produce decent black beans and rice and that's the simplest Spanish food there is.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, we also HAD access to a Chipotle already, as well as several other places we now no longer have access to.