S the Good Samaritan

Sadly, I don't work with S (P.S. check out her blog!) anymore so we don't walk to the slug line together anymore, either. But she told  me about her slugging experience today because it had to do with the line I used to go to. It used to take longer for my line to get rides than the line S was in. Our slug lot is huge and there's a wide array of destinations that the drivers go to from there in the morning, mostly in DC. However, in the afternoon standing at the slug line, there's two lines. The other line gets more rides because it's closer to the exit from the HOV lanes (see this post) and I think drivers want to get the strangers out of their car sooner rather than later, plus they often have other places to go in the afternoon than all the way to our slug lot, about 4 miles down the road.

Anyways, for whatever reason, there's less drivers that go to my slug lot in the afternoon from DC than there appear to be for this other slug lot. I know for a fact that some drivers who leave from my slug lot, take riders back to the other slug lot in the afternoon. I've seen some of the drivers as they call out the name of the other slug lot and recognize them as drivers that leave from mine in the morning.

So it's a running joke between S and I, when we show up to the afternoon slug line and my line is short and hers is extremely long. When she looks at me with sad, puppy face, I just yell back to her 20 people away, that she'll still be in a car before me, so she should be quiet. And it usually happened that way. (It should be noted that it wasn't this long of a wait every day, but it was always the other line that went faster than ours. It was like we were the last ones picked in kickball, sometimes.)

This picture was just funny. 

So finally, to the point of the story: S was driving by the afternoon slug line about two minutes before 6pm when the HOV lanes open to everyone, and she saw two slugs standing in "my" line still waiting. She decided to pick them up, the Good Samaritan that she is, because she knew the pain I sometimes went through as a Rolling Valley rider. When they got in, she told them that her friend goes to RV and she knows it's always harder to get a ride. They replied, "Oh, so you've heard our RV sob stories. Tell your friend, thank you. We really appreciate this ride."

Slugging is a very humbling way to commute. You really are eternally grateful when you get a ride after waiting for a while, or when it's really hot (or cold) out, or you really have somewhere you need to be. Some days are better than others, so it makes it all worthwhile, but on days like this where the riders were still waiting for a ride at 5:58pm, the gratitude oozes out of you. And oh yeah, it's free. Did I mention that?

Giving Back

I decided not to risk getting stuck in unbearable traffic this afternoon, so I went over to the Pentagon slug lines to pick up some slugs after work. I got kind of turned around getting over there, but once you're close enough to the Pentagon it's hard not to find it.

The Pentagon parking lot is hectic. Tons of cars. Traffic cops telling you where to go and doing it in a not-so-efficient manner (in my experience). I made it over to the circle where the slug line that I needed to go to was, and passed by a few other slug lines in the circle before reaching mine. The Pentagon's slugging system is very formal and organized and they have signs for the locations permanently placed in the concrete. What is difficult is getting around the other slug lines in the circle to get to yours because there are cars trying to merge back into the circle once they've picked up slugs, and you're trying to get over to the right at the same time. Shocking there aren't more fender benders. Although I have seen some fights.

Anyways. I got to the front of the line and picked up two riders. My second rider was a middle aged asian woman who when she got into my car said, "Oh, perfect. Thank goodness. It's so hot out there!" It may seem silly, but if you've ever slugged, you know that feeling of being sooo grateful there is a car going to your destination right as you walk up to the line. I felt pretty good being on the other side of that equation. 

Then she stuck an umbrella in front of her face to block the sun from her entire body and I just wanted to burst out laughing. It was a struggle, but I can report back that I did not laugh in her face. I just smiled. And then decided to share it on my blog. Maybe you had to be there. 

Either way, I felt good about picking up slugs and returning the favor I've been on the other side of so many times, even if I wasn't returning it to the specific people who picked me up.

Jealous Pangs

Patience is a virtue. That's the lesson learned from today's commute. 

But, having enough gas in your tank is also necessary. Especially when embarking on an unpredictable commute. And I did not. Or at least I was worrying that I didn't. And waiting in line at the slug lot where there were about four cars in front of me also going to Crystal City (CC). 

After realizing I'd have to wait a little while because of the other CC cars, I decided to try the other slug lot nearby because I didn't have much gas left. I figured there might be less cars there because it's a smaller lot and I would just take some slugs to the Pentagon instead. I got over to the other lot, and there were there cars and no people. I waited for about five minutes and only one person came up. After 8am, that lot is pretty slow. I finally caved and decided to get gas and just stick it out on 395 solo. 

Parts of 395 weren't bad, but there was a lot of bottlenecks and congestion where there was merging going on. I looked over at the HOV lanes to see if maybe they were having a bad day, too. Maybe they were having some "unexplainable" traffic congestion like sometimes occurs on the HOV lanes. Nope. Flying right by. As I sat there crawling behind brake lights. 

I was the person I used to feel sorry for as we were going eighty in the HOV lanes. "Ha...I could never do that. That's painful." And it was. And the driver and other slugs would agree. Craziness. If it wasn't for my Darius Rucker cd, I don't know what I'd have done. Ok, that's an exaggeration. It's survivable. Then again, it wasn't the worst traffic I've seen on 395 before. But why do that when you can pick up slugs and be there in at least half the time. I totally wished I had filled up on gas the night before so I could have just sat in the slug line and waited for riders. (Darius did make me care less about the traffic I was sitting in, though. Love his latest cd.) I just sat in my car, occasionally glancing over at the HOV lanes and sighing. I usually plan so well. I forgot how my gas tank lies to me when it's closer to E, and ends up dropping faster than it should. It also lies to me when it's full, and will take forever to budge at all. Maybe I should get that checked.

Supply and Demand

Slugging is just like any product: it relies on supply and demand. There is a tangible shift in power from days when there is a long line of cars and you're one of few people looking for a ride, to days when you're in a long line of people waiting and there's not many cars available. 

When you walk up and there's a long line of people and not many cars, you're way more susceptible to taking a ride that will drop you off eight blocks away. When you're one of fewer people in line and there's a lot of cars, you can be more picky, so that you get a car that takes you exactly where you want to go. 

On days when there's more cars than people, or the cars are going places that the people in line have turned down, you'll see some drivers calling out their windows to see where people are going. They'll often change their mind and tell you that they'll take you to your location because they've been waiting a while. They may reach their head out and just say, "Hey, where....ARE you going?" 

Desperation reaches both sides of slugging. Often you'll see slugs in line, suddenly sigh and walk towards one of the cars in line that they previously turned down if they've waited too long or think they'll be late for work. I try to hold out until it's really been too long, before I accept something outside of my 4-block range. Because I know that with my luck, if I accept a ride from a car going farther away than I'd normally accept because I'm tired of waiting, 2 seconds later a car going to my exact location will show up. I prefer to wait. 

S knows all about this theory of mine, and one day she ran into me on the way to work when I was coming from a bit farther away. She just started laughing and said, "I see you accepted a ride over here, huh?" Yes, I'm lazy. But the theory usually works in my favor.

My Miss List

While I am excited to shave some time off my commute and get a change of scenery, there are some things that I will miss about slugging in DC:

1. The Walk:

The walk down to the slug line is actually kind of nice. Unless I'm in a huge rush, it's raining, or it's extremely hot out. But you know...otherwise. I usually walk pretty fast so it's a little exercise after sitting in front of a computer all day, and S usually walks with me so we make jokes and talk about the day. We're basically a couple. An odd couple. If opposites attract...
2. The Buildings:

Checking out all the old, historic, important buildings that I pass to and from work. I didn't used to really look, but then someone asked me where some important building was and I honestly had no idea. So I started looking around more and taking in the scenery, and I really love some of the architecture.

3. The W:

I know the one above this is about buildings, but I will specifically miss walking past the Willard Hotel on 13th and Pennsylvania every day. It's just so pretty. I want to go inside and wander around or just stand outside and stare at it and wait for Albert Haynesworth dare to come back, or someone more important pull up in a black sedan or limo. I always see important-looking cars around it, and cop cars, and I just want to walk up and ask who's staying there. I know Beyonce stayed there last year. Sigh.

4. My Carpool:

Occasionally I ride with a carpool in the afternoon when our schedules match up. Sometimes it's nice to get picked up a few blocks from my office so that I don't have to risk it being a bad day at the slug line and have to wait there for 20 minutes to get a ride. And they're pretty entertaining, too. Yesterday when she picked me up she greeted me with, "Hello sunshine!" How can you not like that?

5. My favorite morning drivers:

I've become attached to some of the drivers for my location. Not all of them, but my select favorites I will miss. It's a comfort-zone thing.

6. No Metro:

I hate the Metro, especially during rush hour. This just means I'll probably end up becoming the driver sooner rather than later. But we will see.

DC sluggin'

Next week, I will be starting a new job in Crystal City. Don't worry! I can still slug! (If this is the first and only post you have read, refer to this post to understand).That's literally everyone's first or second concern when they hear my new job is in Crystal City. "But...can you still slug?" It's typically genuine concern (although one of my coworkers had a more sarcastic tone to it...he is skeptical of slugging and shall remain nameless) and I choose to interpret their concern to mean that they love reading my blog so much that their day would be less entertaining without it. Or maybe they just enjoy overhearing my morning story time with S where we exchange any funny slugging stories across cubicles loud enough for the entire sparsely populated office to hear. Since I only have like 8 followers. Or maybe modesty isn't my best trait and they are just concerned about me being able to continue slugging for financial reasons. Since right now I pay nothing for my commute. Nah, genuine concern for my finances? I'm going with the first reason.

To summarize, yes I will be slugging still. The only difference is in the afternoon, it doesn't appear that drivers from Crystal City go to my slug lot where I park in the morning. So while I can slug from the morning lot to Crystal City, I will need to metro to the Pentagon and slug from there in the afternoon. Not a big deal. And I'm sure I will still shave at least 15 minutes off of my commute since I won't be sitting in any 14th street traffic! Perhaps I'll transition into the slug driver in the near future...that'd be interesting.

Car-sick, tired, but still laughing (Thanks Tina Fey)

I stepped into my office building feeling nauseaus this morning after riding with one of the worst lane-changer-slug-drivers to date. Not only did I feel sick, but it was one of those mornings where traffic was backed up from the start on the HOV lanes, and then without any explanation as to why we had just crawled for 8 miles, opened up and was smooth sailing the rest of the way into DC. I hate that. There was no accident. No cop sitting there causing everyone to panic and immediately slow down 20 miles per hour. No huge merging issues. Inexplainable backed-up traffic.

So I was pretty tired when I got into the building. Our concierge noticed, as it would have been hard not to since I stepped through the door mid-yawn, and made some comment I can't remember because I was still waking up. Basically he just laughed at me and teased me saying he hoped I didn't fall asleep at my desk today. He's a fun guy. Always smiling. Shout out to him for always making the start of our day pleasant even when we feel like walking zombies (eh, eh, B? little zombies shout out, too?). He slugs in to work, too, so he knew what I'd just sat in on 95. I found out later that I looked so tired that when S walked in this morning, and told him she was tired, his reply was, "Oh, no, you're not tired! Anna...now SHE was tired!" He likes to stir it up.

Anyways. I still felt a little nauseaus from the car ride, so I got a soda (Coke-Zero Cherry, of course, because Coke-Zero alone tastes like absolute crap) in an attempt to make my stomach feel better. Did the car ride really make me that nauseaus you ask? Let's see here. The driver was clearly agitated that traffic was so backed-up, explaining that he usually comes in much earlier, and attempted to change lanes every 30 seconds, only to make no progress. Because traffic was going no where. Obviously. At one point we were stopped because of a school traffic cop, and at the last second he tried to get into the left lane and ended up with a slight tail end still in the right lane. Definitely necessary. So we continued this all the way up the road to the HOV lanes, and well into the HOV lane traffic, as well. Left. Right. Left. Right. Sighhhh.

"Ch-ch-ch-chhhh-chhhh." He kept making this noise as he changed lanes and asked if traffic was usually this bad at this time, because again, he didn't usually go in this late. I assured him that no, even at this wildly late hour of 7:45am traffic was not usually like this, as I glanced sideways at him every time he made that weird, "Chh-chhh," noise. What was that?


Oh and did I mention it smelled weird in his car? I stuck my nose in my Tina Fey autobiography, "Bossypants," hoping to take my mind off of all this and get a few laughs. In the past week while reading this book in the car, I've had more than a few moments where I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud. Her renditions of her first job, honeymoon, and what it's like on a photoshoot are hilarious and so sarcastic, I love it. I was hoping that this morning would be no different so that I could make him equally uncomfortable with my somewhat suppressed and seemingly-random laughing as his odd noises and obsessive lane-changing were making me. (This did happen. And he didn't seem phased.)

All in all, pretty not-fun ride this morning. Mildly uncomfortable. Never seen that guy before, and I hope he reverts to his normal 6am shift so that I don't ride with him again. The only big plus was that I did get dropped off right in front of my office. Success.

Slugging Etiquette Rule #2

Rule #2: A slug does not ask to change the radio station or adjust the heat or air conditioning.

This is another main rule listed on the slugging website that I've seen both followed and completely disregarded. The first part of the rule regarding the radio station, in my opinion, is a given. It's their car, their radio, and you should just listen to what they have on without complaining.

The lady who was telling stories about That Guy told me one about another lady that she is actually friends with, but can be a bit overwhelming to deal with sometimes, telling her (not asking) to turn down her radio. The driver is someone I enjoy riding with, but her music is a bit out there, and definitely not my type. I have put my headphones in before when I was in her car, because it was extra loud that day, but usually I just deal with it. This woman actually said, "Turn down your music!" The driver was rather put off by the nature of her friend's request, and That Guy happened to be in her car as well. When she responded to her friend, she said, "For YOU, I will," as if to send a message to the guy in the passenger seat.

I've never heard anyone else tell a driver to change their radio station or turn it down, and I have witnessed a wide variety of radio choices by the drivers. One driver I like to call Spanish Reggaeton because the couple of times I rode with him in the morning he was blasting it on his radio. 8am, man. Then there's Republican Guy who I like to ride with because I think the morning talk show is hilarious, but I'm sure not everyone that rides with him likes listening to it as it's usually pretty controversial conversations. I've ridden with drivers that play classical music, NPR radio, hot 99.5, and even audio books. The audio book lady was particularly uncomfortable because it was some sort of romantic novel. Very awkward. I definitely put my headphones in during that car ride, but the volume on her radio was up there so it was hard to shut it out.

The second part of the rule regarding the temperature in the car is a separate subject. Often the drivers will inquire as to whether it's too hot or too cold in their car, out of courtesy. Unless it's at an extreme one way or the other, I just reply with, "I'm fine." But I have ridden in a few cars either in the summer when they didn't have air conditioning, or the winter when they were absolutely blasting the heat, where I've said otherwise or tried to make my discomfort noticable to get them to adjust the temperature.

One driver didn't have AC in his car, and my friend, V, was riding in the same car as me that day. He had the windows rolled down going about 80 mph on the HOV lanes and the wind was blowing in our faces. V finally spoke up and asked him if he could roll the windows up, and that's when he told her he didn't have AC. She turns him down now as a result of numerous bad experiences in his car and she's never turned down a driver before. I think if it's really that cold or hot in their car, it's acceptable to politely ask if they would mind turning the air up or down, or rolling up the windows.

Most people won't be offended or appalled that you asked if you ask to turn the temperature up or down politely, but if you do it in a rude way that's where it could burn some slugging bridges. And it's not the same as telling them to change their radio station, so this rule is really two rules in one.

On the Flip Side

On Friday my friend was in town to check out some graduate schools in DC and was staying with me, so I decided to drive in to work for a couple of reasons.

1. I didn't want to overwhelm her with the concept of slugging at 7am on Friday morning. I planned to pick S up right before we got on the HOV lane to make the three-person requirement and to make S's commute in a bit easier, too.

2. I wasn't sure what time my friend would be done wandering DC and I wanted to be able to leave ASAP after she was done. Driving in would give me that opportunity, and I would just pick up a slug on the way home since S would still be working.

The morning went as planned. Traffic was really light since it was Friday, and we got S and made it into the city and parking garage in good time.

The afternoon was much more interesting. Little known fact: I hate driving in DC. Especially in rush hour when God knows who is going to change lanes at the last second and cut you off. I managed to pick my friend up in Dupont Circle after going around a couple of different circles multiple times. (Be quiet, B.) We proceeded to make it back past my office, and downtown towards the Washington Monument.

I had it all under control driving-wise, even though I was road-raging-it-up as cabs stopped abruptly and potholes popped up left and right. No almost-accidents, or anything. I got to the stoplight right before the slug line, and was all in place in the right lane. So proud of myself. Piece of cake. Then I see it--a car still parked in the right lane, and perfectly placed about ten feet in front of the beginning of the slug line. Great. I looked to my left to judge if I could gun it and beat the car next to me to change lanes briefly, pass the parked car and get back over. It was a van. No problem. My little Corolla could do it. (I just saw Fast Five last night, so I feel pretty lame right now.)

Of course another car was pulling in front of the parked car at the same time as me, and didn't move up very far, soI had very little space to pull over into. The tail end of my car sticking out more than I was comfortable with in DC rush hour traffic, so I was trying to get people in my car and get out as quickly as possible. I called out the window where I was going and said that I could take one or two, but that they'd have to move some of the stuff in my backseat over. The guy said, "Oh, that's ok," and just got in and didn't tell the guy behind him that I could take another.

So as he closed the door, the passenger seat window was still open and the next guy in the slug line yelled, "TAKE TWO NEXT TIME!" My road rage got the best of me and I instinctively yelled back, telling him to bite me in more or less words.

The guy who got into the car with me was someone I'd seen in line before, and had a good sense of humor. He kind of laughed and said something like, "Some people...". My defense is that I did try to get two riders. The guy didn't relay the information and I just wanted to get out of there before my left bumper got tweaked by another driver not paying attention. Poor communication between the slugs combined with DC driving anxiety caused me to break my own code of slugging, but that's ok because, as the rider I did pick up and my friend pointed out, the guy was a jerk so if I didn't want him in my car before, I didn't want him in my car after that anyways.

But don't worry, guy. Next time...I'll take two. Just not you.