all the thanks i can manage.

over the past two Novembers, i have noticed a little bit of a pattern, and it goes something like this: i make a concerted effort to have an attitude of gratitude, and then the Universe dishes up a bunch of annoying things to thwart said attitude. last year it was the grocery store, this year it was my commute this morning.

allow me to explain. (and look! i even brought visual aids! bonus points for me!)

for the past few weeks, i have been taking the most straight-forward route to work at the new office. the one with the least amount of turns or backroads or chances for me to get lost, which is also the one with the most traffic. and stop lights. and did i mention all the traffic? so let's call this route the-one-that-takes-longer-than-it-should.

so yesterday, i took a new way to work, thanks to a combination of Google Maps, Gordon, and following the truck in front of me. there was hardly any traffic, and i got to work in under 30 mins. let's call this route the-brand-new-favorite-cause-its-awesome.

so then this morning, i decided to attempt the-brand-new-favorite-cause-its-awesome route without the aid of Google Maps, Gordon, OR the truck in front of me. i was feeling really proud of myself, until i got a little bit lost. i made a wrong turn at some point, and then when i tried to resort to getting help from Gordon i missed a turn when he told me to continue straight when what he really meant to say is 'hey, the road turns here so make sure you turn here to stay on the same road don't just go straight onto that other road' and all of a sudden i was right back around the mid-point of the-route-that-takes-longer-than-it-should. you know, the route i was working really hard to avoid. so instead i just made the-route-that-takes-longer-than-it-should even longer. because i'm just that awesome.

AND THEN! as if that wasn't bad enough... as soon as i got back onto the-route-that-takes-longer-than-it-should, (which i didn't want to be on in the first place) a gray taurus pulled out in front of me. but this wasn't just any gray taurus. no, this one was being driven by one of the most incompetent people i have ever met on the road.

and that, my friends, is the story of how i wound up driving the rest of the way going 15mph UNDER the speed limit, tapping my brakes for EVERY car passing in the other direction and EVERY turn, and ended up being late to work, even though i left plenty early and planned to take the-brand-new-favorite-cause-its-awesome route and miss all the traffic.


11. i am thankful that i have a car to take me to work. because walking those 12 miles would take a heckuva lot longer than even the-route-that-takes-longer-than-it-should does.