Getting Situated

I've been on a brief hiatus from blogging because:

a. I was testing out the commute last week to see which routes worked best, the time differences, etc. 

b. last week was shorter due to the holiday 

and 

c. on the days I did try to pick up slugs in the afternoon last week Crystal City one-way streets, my lack of knowledge of the area, and my lack of patience got the best of me and I ended up either taking back roads home or sitting in 395 traffic. 

A: I'm getting a better mental map for the area over there as well as for the parking garage which is under construction and has minimal directions regarding where the exits lead to until it tosses you out onto a one-way street heading in the opposite direction you want to be going, of course. I've found a good route to take to pick up slugs, as well as a good route to take for days when traffic isn't bad or days when I leave early, etc. so I don't need to or can't pick up slugs. 

Time-wise, today it took me about 20 minutes from the time I picked up slugs to the time I dropped them off. I was probably only on the HOV lane for about 8 minutes. It was glorious. And door-to-door it was about 40 minutes which can be shortened if I hit the street lights at the right time, and get used to the commute so I'm sure of where I'm going. It's definitely longer door-to-door not picking up slugs and taking regular 395, as well as way more painful. It may seem weird having strangers in your car, but I'd rather do that than stop and go 150+ times on the way home with a max speed of 20pm on 395. Like I said, I have a lack of patience especially with traffic.

C: I don't really want to talk about, but I will.  After sitting in the 395 traffic going home once already last week, I knew I wanted to get into the habit of picking up slugs at the Pentagon instead. So I set out to do that one day last week and I ended up on a street I hadn't been on in the area and the street signs up ahead were hard to read until it was too late. I ended up on Route 1 South and would have to cross over like four lanes of traffic immediately to get back to where I wanted to be, so I just said screw it and kept going South. I had another similar experience the next day, where I ended up getting frustrated and just getting on 395 South. Why was this so difficult--go North from Crystal City and it's hard to miss the Pentagon, right?

Friday I was so annoyed with my commute from the day before that I decided to just bail on attempting to pick up slugs and I figured the traffic wouldn't be too bad since it was Friday and a lot of people don't even go into work. It wasn't as bad as the other days but it still wasn't great.

But today, I wasn't going to sit in that 395 traffic. I was determined not to be an idiot for a third time attempting to pick up slugs. I had picked up slugs once the week before from the Pentagon, so I really don't know why this whole parking garage change was messing me up. I knew what street I needed to be on to get to the Pentagon, the parking garage spitting me out in a different location was just throwing me off. So I managed to find my way back to the exit of the garage that I was familiar with, and lo and behold, it solved all my problems. Thank. Goodness.