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.