Analysis Paralysis
I had nearly resigned myself to buying a car. Did hours of research, listened to hours of unsolicited advice from friends and friends of friends and my hairdresser, checked my credit report and FICO score (Suze Orman would be so proud of me), even walked into a dealership with the intention of a test drive (now I have a nice young man, Paul, who calls me every day to tell me that the car I'm interested in has arrived). Now I'm mentally fatigued from the whole process and still riding the bus.Here are my bus issues:
1. Motion Sickness. I am a person who can even manage to make myself a little nauseated when I'm the one driving. Bus, subway, car, rollarcoaster, you name it, it will make me ill. I hoped it would be something I grew out of... but it seems to be getting worse. So, if I'm feeling particularly ill on the bus, my options are to either get out on some sketchy block of the South Waterfront in Camden or try to hold it together until I at least get close enough to work that I could call a co-worker for a ride.
2. Smells. Another issue that seems to be getting worse. If there's something rotting within five blocks, I can smell it. I really wish I could parlay this into some cool job like sommelier or other smell-dependent career, but instead it seems to mean that I end up in awkward situations like how do you tell the director of HR that her perfume is overwhelming and headache inducing from five cubicles away. On the bus it becomes a problem when someone who chain smokes cheap cigarettes, then tosses that last one right before getting on the bus, and then sits right behind me, may result in me gagging uncontrollably, trying to breathe through my shirt fabric until the smell dissapates.
3. Other. I could make a long list of issues, but really numbers 1 and 2 are the big ones. The others are things like TIME, it takes three times as long to take the bus versus driving; PEOPLE talking to me, asking for change, asking to use my cell phone; and, SCHEDULE, as in why have one if you're not going to follow it at the critical moment that I need to get back into the city.
There are some pros... it's certainly cheaper to take the bus and I don't have to worry about parking in my neighborhood. And, uh... I'm an authority on public transit to my South Jersey clients. That's all I got.
posted by marthadotcom @ 9:42 AM
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