Commuting

Right now I'm using the term commuting fairly loosely.  For real it takes me about twenty minutes to get to work.  I am fully aware that no one in this area has any idea what it's like for people like my dad to get to work.  He goes maybe thirty miles (I'm gonna bet on that being an overestimate) and it sometimes can take him three hours to get there.  Yeah, Provo traffic isn't the best, but you have NO IDEA.  Seriously, go to Stafford then complain about how long it takes you to get across town.  Thing is, in the greater DC area where people are commuting a lot they seem to understand some basic rules of the road.  Here I present some of my thoughts on driving.

1. Slower traffic keep right.  Um, hello Utah, why is this so hard?  If you're going less than 10 over get in the right lane.  I respect the fact that occasionally someone is going ten under in the right lane (let's be real, it's more than occasionally in these parts) and then you have to pass them in the left lane.  Then, GET OVER AND GET OUT OF MY WAY.

2. At least occasionally use the turn signal.  I think drivers in general are abysmal at fully utilizing their turn signal (which I don't understand at all because it's pretty much the easiest gesture in the history of the earth), but Utah drivers seem to have forgotten they have one.

3. You cannot cross a solid line of any color!  Seriously, in those construction zones where you have to stay in your lane, YOU HAVE TO STAY IN YOUR LANE!  Sometimes there are situations where you might have to cross because someone stops all of a sudden or whatever, but these are not times for casual passing.

4. If one more time I get stuck in the Utah road block (when cars in all lanes are going the same speed despite wide open road space in front of them thus preventing anyone from passing) I'm going to lose it.

5. What the heck is with the fact that all of I-15 is currently under construction at the same time and they do the work at prime hours of the day?  You're supposed to do that crap at night.

People in the area of Virginia where I learned to drive are sometimes scary drivers and I'm not going to deny that, but other drivers understand that and so choose their actions carefully.  For example, my dad was riding in a carpool with a stranger.  The driver in front of the vehicle my dad was in slammed on his brakes suddenly.  This pissed off the driver of my dad's car who had apparently had enough that day and so accelerated into the car in front (simply because he was mad).  Mad enough that he then reversed and slammed into the person behind him before putting the car back in drive and hitting the guy in front again.  All on purpose.

Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily think this is the best practice and can be quite dangerous, but I can't help but wonder if this type of thing happened in Utah more often would people think before driving like total idiots?

Ok, rant over.

Definitely a Shame Spiral

About a week and a half ago I was in the midst of a shame spiral, as my friend Brittany terms it.  I'd had a bad day at work.  I was still struggling to adapt to my apartment.  I was flat broke, but luckily I'd found 40 bucks in a bank account I rarely used.  I went to the grocery store in a shirt that looked two sizes too big (it was actually only once size too big) and gym shorts.  My hair was a hot mess and I was in quite a bad mood.  I had necessities to buy and wasn't really in the mood to be there.  I got my necessities and a couple of groceries and also placed some raw chocolate chip cookie dough into my basket with no intentions of baking it.  You know what eating raw cookie dough makes you feel like?  Simultaneously you feel like it was the best idea ever and you hate yourself.  It was one of those days, you know?  I was walking through the parking lot back to my car with my phone tucked into my bra and it started ringing.  Seriously?  The one time my hands are full my phone is going to ring?  I was pissed, saw it wasn't a number I recognized, but decided to answer it anyway.  It was a principal from an interview I'd gone to earlier that day.  "Great," I thought.  I just interviewed today and they're already telling me they picked someone else.

Not so.  I GOT THE JOB!  Hello, this is only my lifelong dream to be a teacher.  Now I've got one week under my belt teaching fifth grade and it's awesome.  After the first day I almost cried because it was a disaster, but it's gotten much better.  I really think I'm good at this job.  I'm still adapting to the learning curve, but it's not as bad as I expected it to be.  The kids are great (even though I have a few difficult ones) and I really enjoy this job.  That's what picking a career is all about, yeah?