Sit Back, Relax and Enjoy the Traffic

Yesterday I was in North Jersey for a meeting with two managers from Panda Restaurant Group, the parent/support group for Panda Express as well as Panda Inn and Habachi San. It wasn't really an interview cause they're not hiring right now, but we just wanted to meet each other and make that connection so if anything does open up in the near future I'll have that networking going on already.

Anyways, that's not what I'm here to talk about. I wanted to talk about the driving experience I had that day (I seem to drive a lot and have a lot of realizations while behind the wheel). The drive up wasn't bad at all. It was straightforward and I had a GPS with me anyway. There was also no traffic, which was nice cause I didn't want to show up late. After all, this was pretty much the closest thing to an interview without it actually being an interview.

We met in a brand new Panda Express that the manager was visiting, and when I left I found myself in Deep Impact like gridlock traffic on the NJ Turnpike. I thought about trying to take local streets, but I figured heck I'm not in a rush and I didn't want to pay the toll again. I got myself in the left lane so I wouldn't have to bother as much with other cars merging in and out of my lane. After that I just inched along for an hour till things cleared up.

Here's the weird thing. Looking back, I'm actually kind of glad I stayed in traffic. I'm usually high strung about stressful environments; driving, videogames, women, etc. For the first time in a long time, I just relaxed in my car. As long as I didn't rear-end the guy in front of me I was cool. I was *gasp* messaging on my Blackberry while listening to *hurray* NPR podcasts (I made sure to load up before I left the house). It turns out there was some construction on the highway that funneled all four lanes into one. Once past that last cone and cop car, I pushed the pedal to the metal/rubber floor mat. I felt like I had the whole highway to myself and I literally yelled "FREEDOM!!!!!" as I redlined my V6. Overall, it was a very unexpected sense of liberation.

So whenever you're stuck in traffic, you're not in a rush and gas levels/prices aren't an issue just relax, taking life slow and enjoy the little things for once. Who knew being stuck in a car that's stuck in traffic can be so freeing.