My job requires me to commute three days a week from the city of subdued excitement (Bellingham, WA) to the city of yuppy love (Bellevue, WA). For those of you who don’t know, Bellingham is approximately 90 miles north of Bellevue, which translates to 180 miles round-trip. Now, I don’t expect ya’ll to feel sorry for me after reading this, but I gotta break down the time I spend traveling for work, just because these numbers get real big, real quick.

Check this out…

Multiply the 180 miles round trip I do commuting day by 3 (days per week) and you get 540 miles traveled per week for work. Multiply that by, let’s say, 45 weeks (an estimate after subtracting vacation, holidays, sick days, etc. from 52 weeks), and you get 24,300 miles a year! Now, consider the fact that the average time it takes to do the round-trip between Bellingham and Bellevue is 4 hours (2 hours each way), and multiply that by 3 days a week, and then by 45 weeks a year, and you get 540 hours spent commuting a year! That’s 22 1/2 days spent commuting! I’ve been working there nearly 2 years now, so I’ve easily got a month and half invested in the seat of my car, or one of the cars of my co-workers. Damn that’s depressing…

Believe it or not, there are a few things that save this time from going totally down the toilet: the Gameboy Advance SP, Shawn and Paul arguing (cuz it’s funny), the heated seats in the Audi’s, Paul spilling coffee on himself, the Nomad, and drip coffee from I Wana Moka.

Oh, and I can’t forget about the great intellectual conversations we have either, those make the time just fly by. Here’s a sample:

Paul: I can’t believe that Zquewmbe Mombassi was elected as the viceroy of the Republic of Congo, his economic and sociopolitical aspirations will not be good for that country.

Shawn: I know dude, I mean, does he really think he can revive their ailing economy with brute force? Raising the subsidies for palm farmers to less that .3 is only going to undermine efforts throughout the country to generate new goods for export. Dumb ass…”

Shaun: I don’t know, I’ve been listening to his supporters and am impressed with their arguments. Why should his past record preclude him from being a good viceroy? When he was in the parliament, he was able to successfully pass a number of bills that absolved the notion of the Congo being a country without a strong government.

Nick: True. True.

There you have it. A glimpse into about a month and half of my life over the past 2 years. There will be more. Despite the negatives, the work is fun. I gotta get those dead president’s!