I know how much people love to read posts about traffic, so I'll try to keep this brief. to summarize, when traffic sucks as badly as it did for me this morning, a driver needs to be entertained in order to keep her mind off such things as, oh, caulculating how much gas gets burned up while moving .4 miles in over 10 minutes and how much that burned up gas had cost her at the pump just days earlier.

so, when I was roughly halfway to work this morning, I noticed what appeared to be a man with a helmet, standing off to the side of the road, actually in the street, but on the right hand side of it. as I got closer, I realized that he was not just standing there, but moving - not walking, but riding. on what seemed to be some sort of segway-esque contraption - except with three wheels. he was wearing a shiny white helmet with some "really cool" hot pink decals on each side. he was also wearing a leather jacket, kind of like what someone with a fancy little crotch-rocket might be sporting. I was really amused as I got closer, and, as I passed him, glanced over my shoulder to get a good look at his face. just cuz I was curious about what a person who owns and rides a motorized standing scooter looks like. I imagined some nerdy kid, but was surprised to see a middle-aged man with a salt and pepper mustache and sunglasses looking back at me. and I actually laughed out loud and wished he were going faster or I were going slower so I could snap a picture. but I blew by him at about 40 miles per hour. I imagine he couldn't have been going more than 10 mph. who knows. but he looked rather smug on his scooter, probably because it uses practically no gas at all to run. anyway, as I left him in my dust, I hoped that he would be on the road again tomorrow so that I could get a good photo. and then I laughed again, a few seconds later, because, dude, the guy looked really dorky.

anyway, so, that was before the traffic started. I pretty much take one street all the way into my office, and about a mile past mr. scooter, things started to slow down. a lot. I mean, a LOT. as in .4 miles in over 10 minutes. so, as I'm sitting there in the left lane, windows open (cuz, YAY! nice weather!), listening to my morning show, wondering how late I'm going to be, I casually glance towards my right, watching people get onto the freeway, when I see the scooter guy zip by, looking even smugger than he did a mile back. this time, he blew by me so fast that I didn't have a chance to get my camera out. and that was it. I never caught up to him. maybe he got on the freeway. who really knows? the point is, his scooter was faster than my car and I'm sure it's infinitely cheaper to own. I got schooled by a guy my dad's age. on a scooter. with a helmet. with hot pink stickers. on a scooter.