Friday, June 16, 2006


A bit of Traffic, A Full Bladder and A Caprihana. (in that order..)




I am not sure whether you folks from out of town are familiar with the infamous traffic issues in Seattle?? Here is a little background. Seattle is a relatively small city, but in the last several years, the city’s population has outgrown its capacity to accommodate the influx of people. The problem is, where most cities have a mass transit system, as a means of effective and quick transport, Seattle has the bus….and, only the bus. Of course, this doesn’t count the monorail, which travels a lengthy mile or so.

A major traffic corridor is also unfortunately my commute to work, across the 520 bridge. Most commuters take it all the way to Microsoft, whereas I jump off a little early, in Kirkland, just across the lake. 520 is one of my biggest headaches about working where I do, and I am not even a part of the prime traffic time commute. So in a sense, I am usually one of the lucky ones….until today.

Today….I sat in traffic for 2 hours. Yep, you heard me right…2 hours.

I left work at around 3:30, and I decided that I would pick up some groceries on my way home. I had also been alerted to the new Whole Foods in Bellevue, so I was very excited about this shopping excursion and thought, ‘Great, I can hit this and zoom home on I-90..nice and easy! ’.. (I-90 tends to be a quicker route than 520, albeit a little more out of the way.)

So, of course, I spent like an hour in the market, perusing the aisles and smiling, so by the time that I was leaving, it was close to 5 already. I had a sinking feeling as I pulled out of the parking lot and made my way towards I-405, a parking lot, too, at this particular moment. So, I bypassed and decided to take a surface street down to I-90, an idea that I thought was quite clever on my part.

Hmph.

An hour later, after a lengthy conversation with Mom, and maybe a mere 3 miles, I finally hit the freeway entrance.

Arghhh…

Then, I-90 decides to creep along, and all the water that I have consumed in the last few hours begins to catch up with me. (I drink a lot of water at work..)

Great.

I finally get to the downtown exit in Seattle, and just my luck, there is traffic backed up for the big Mariners game. By this time, my bladder has reached emergency capacity and I am nearly doubled over with cramps, tears streaming down my face…screaming expletives to myself.. (with the windows rolled up and KUBE be-bop blasting)…people in the cars next to me probably wondering what the heck did she have for lunch?..

A few more painfully drawn out eons, and I make it into our parking garage, where T is waiting to help me carry the groceries, as I limp, doubled over in pain and make my way into our apartment.

Ah……(I don’t think that I need to tell you what happened next!)

Luckily, when I was feeling fully recovered, T was there, again. He sat me down, told me to relax, peeled me an orange and concocted for me, the world’s best Caprihana.

In that moment, it was just what I needed.

2 comments:

amy said...

oh thats the worst!

what's KUBE?

Sara said...

KUBE is a station that I am a closet fan of :) (kind of like KMEL..is that still around??)