will someone please perfect teleportation?

today, i've decided to blog about my commute to work. after stubbornly attempting to convince myself it's "not that bad", i am now admitting, yes, it is that bad. ugh! my commute! it is the worst part about my new mexican experience thus far. don't get me wrong, weekend-anticipating-readers, it's not terrible. there's no traffic, no aggressive drivers, no juiceheads in hummers. no annoyed drivers, voicing their displeasure that you're not going fast enough through their poor vehicles overused voicebox. no "very-important-businessmen" giving you their favorite finger, as they adjust their tie and check their watch (which of course gives the time in eight different time zones, to the millisecond, which is obviously whats needed if you do business in nyc, la and tokyo, scoff, scoff). can you tell andiepants holds a bit of contempt for the traffic of long island? just a bit. anyway, friends, there's none of that here in nueva mexico.  it's just longgggggg. soooo lonnggggg. 50 miles each way. fifty! 5-0! crikey. so you can see now, dear readers, why andiepants required a new vehicle.

lets also discuss the nature of my commute. i am on ONE road, friends, for about 47 miles. yep, just one. i turn left. and then about 45 minutes later, i turn left again, and then, just for novelties sake, i hang a right. then bam! at school!so i can't even be consoled that it's an interesting drive that requires careful attention to its many twists and turns. oh the agony! also, the good people of the new mexico department of transportation have decided that now is an excellent time to do construction on a 10 mile stretch right smack in the middle of my commute. the sign says that they anticipate this project to be completed in the spring of 2011. i proudly recited this information to my coworker after telling her that my commute "wasn't that bad". She chortled at me and reminded my little-easterner-soul that this, my friends, is the land of manana (that means tomorrow, english-only, friends). She looked at me with just a touch of pity and stated that she would be shocked (shocked!) if it was completed by 2015. crap!

onward with the complaining. i share my glorious stretch of road with all vehicle types. unfortunately, this includes tractor trailers. if vehicles were people, tractor trailers would be that huge, overweight, diabetes-riddled, chocolatey-fingered, horrible attitude, wedgie giving bully, lumbering around the playground just trying to mess up everyone else's day. i hate you, and your 18 wheels! all of them!


lastly (on the negative side), i have experienced two distinct extremes of drivers here in the southwest. the first, my friends, is the native southwesterner. this person has been driving in the desert for their entire lives. they know how to handle themselves and their vehicles, maneuvering their 1986 dodge lancer with no hubcaps and more rust than paint faster than a roadrunner on amphetamines. and then we have the tourists. and i don't mean to bash tourists, seeing as how i was one, not more than a month ago. but friends! they should not drive here! i see any plates other than texas or new mexico (especially if they denote a midwestern state, sorry midwest friends), oy! and i know that i will be late for work. no matter what the speed limit is, they will travel a significant amount under it, as if the evils of the desert might not get them if they go 35 in a 50. a word to those tourists who consistently make me late for work: if you go faster than 65mph rattlesnakes cannot bite you, however, once you drop down to about 40, its gets dangerous.... just sayin.


phew. i feel better. i apologize for your scalded ears, dear readers, but the rage had to go somewhere. now, in the interest of balance, i'd like to share the positives of my daily journey. since newly adopting howie (thats our new suv by the way, welcome, howie!), the commute is much nicer. andiepants gets blasted with the ac, sets howie on cruise control (i cannot WAIT for the car that drives itself while i sleep in the backseat) and listens to the ipod, while sipping (more like gulping) my liquid fuel (that'd be coffee). and the light in the morning is just amazing. i leave our apartment by about 6:45am and you can just see the rays of the sun, as it plays behind the mountain, stretching its little sun-arms, and rumbling around in its little sun-bedroom for its facewash and hair tie. you can see that its up, but it doesn't want to play yet. the mountains to the west are tinged with pink and blue and the air is crisp and cool. remember friends, that in the desert, the temperature regularly swings from low fifties in the morning to low nineties in the afternoon and then descends back toward the fifties as the sun sets, so the mornings require a nice little jacket and warm cup of coffee.

around 7:03am, the sun begins to creep over the crests of the mountains, showing its face to andiepants for the first time that day. hola, sunshine. the sun is shy at first, just barely peaking above the majestic tips, but then within five minutes or so, it gathers its confidence and shines, in all its intense, majestic glory upon the expanse of desert. this is when andiepants is thankful for visors. around 7:15am, i enter the construction zone and.... we can skip that part. its just annoying and will drag me back into negative-land. at 7:25am, i pop out of the other side of construction-ville, into the farm country directly north of a small town called tulie (not its actual name). this five mile stretch is insanely gorgeous, with gently rolling hills and fertile green carpets, blanketing extensive farms. and here, we have ralph. ralph is the elderly farmer that owns a gigantic well maintained ranch and whom i wave to every morning.

and sometimes, i am able to catch amazing rainbows such as the one above. score!

post-ralph, i reach tulie, where everyone obeys the speed limit. imagine! when the blinking school sign sternly cautions its drivers to go "20mph and ONLY 20mph", they do. and andiepants crawls through tulie with them. after tulie is the final push! only twelve more minutes through the northern section of the town i work in and into the neighborhoods where the elementary schools reside. success!


 and i do have to admit, friends, that my commute give me ample opportunity to think, which may or may not be a good thing for our favorite freckly author. sometimes when i have too much time to delve into the deep end of my brain, i get so wrapped up in metacognition (literally thinking about thinking) that i can't see the forest for the trees. however, i have been enjoying my quiet thinking time. i choose an album at the start of my journey and let it play out in its entirety as my brain sorts through its agenda for that day.

so there you have it. the first negative words i have to say (publicly) about new mexico. eventually, i might be able to reframe my thoughts and enjoy and even look forward to my commute. in the meantime, howie and i will keep on keepin on, hating tractor trailers and tourists. somebody has to counsel those children, and friends, its gonna be me.


be thankful,
andie.