My new job at WMATA

Last Summer, when gas prices hit $4+ per gallon, I finally realized after nine years of dueling with the traffic to get to work that I should take advantage of the metro area's excellent mass transit system. There's a bus stop one block from my house in either direction that goes to the Pentagon. From there I can either walk or take the metro two stops to my office.

By and large, my experience has been very positive. Although not always on time, I get to work on time, I don't have to sit and crawl on I395 with 1,000 of my closest friends thinking "they really say the traffic in LA is worse." Now that is not to say that I haven't had many metrobus adventures, but last night was the most interesting so far. The bus driver was a substitute, not a new occurrence, but usually the sub has some working knowledge of the route. For this driver, it seemed, it was her first day in the area and she had NO idea how to get to where we needed to go.

When I got on the bus, I thought, uh-oh. It's Friday and I really just want to get home. In a move that was probably more self-preservation than an attempt to be helpful, I sat toward the front and proceeded to be the human GPS for the bus driver. I told her that I could only take her so far and hoped that there would be some other helpful passenger who would be able to guide her through the rest of the route. When I finally reached my stop, I gave her as many directions on continuing the route as I could, and stepped off the bus. I'm pretty sure another passenger, also probably thinking of their own abilility to make it home, moved up and helped out.

Hilary Clinton said it takes a village. I truly believe that.