I have come to the conclusion that no matter what time I leave my house, I will not get to work on time. I must be in my classroom at 7:45 am each morning, but I have to take my daughter to daycare in the morning. I have the chance to take her to a daycare at my high school, so why can't I get to work on time? Well, my high school is so large it is in two different buildings. As luck would have it, the daycare is in the other building and I can only drop her off at 7:30 or later. Again, why can't I get to work on time? Well let me explain.
As any mother of a toddler will tell you, getting out of the house with your sanity intact is the first obstacle to overcome each morning. Somedays, MM is up at 6:30, dressed by 6:35 and sitting in front of the TV watch Ni Hoa Kia Lan on Nick Jr. Other days, I am lucky to get her dressed and ready to go by 7 am. For some reason she does not think she can put on her shoes until seconds before she leaves; she will even take them off if I put them on her too early. My smooth departure all depends on whether or not I have a happy child or a grouchy child. You would think she was a Gemini (like me) with the dueling personalities I have to deal with!
Once I leave the house, I need to go through three intersections that seem to be against me. The first intersection favors the opposing traffic so I have to wait to get my 10 seconds of a green light. If I am lucky, no one will be in front of me trying to turn left too, if there is, I might not make the light since there always seems to be a steam of opposing traffic. Next, I have an even longer light that favors the opposing traffic which is beside a school bus stop and an convenience store. Much of the traffic I encounter at this point wants to turn left, so once I get through it, I do not have much traffic in front of me until I go another 3/4 of a mile down the road where there is a t-intersection. I have the right of way, but the cars at this intersection do not seem to understand what stop means. I can not tell you the number of times I have had a car pull out in front of me and then go 10 miles below the speed limit!
No sympathy yet? Let me give you more details. Once I get to the city limits, I have to go through a series of intersections in which everyone seems to forget the rules of the road. If I go straight, I get to a stop sign and then can go straight again to another stop sign and then pray that someone will let me into traffic. Or, I can turn left, go to another stop sign and pray that someone will let me into traffic. Or, at the city limit, I can turn right, cross a bridge, turn left to merge into traffic, cross another bridge and go passed those two intersections in which I have to hope someone will let me out. The last option sounds like a no brainer, right? Well, at the merge point, road officials have placed a stop sign even though the merging traffic has its own lane to pull into! So, you have guessed it, people stop and wait until the other lane of traffic goes by before pulling into the always clear "merging" lane! Our lane does not go away, so it is not really a merging lane, it starts at our stop sign. Now, I have made it into the city, but wait, I have to go to a t-intersection that has a traffic light. There are two, one way lanes going north into the city intersected by one lane. If you are turning right at this light, after stopping, you can turn right all the time because there is never cross traffic for those turning right. So, what happens at this light? Cars turning right sit at the light and wait until it turns green. I repeat, there is never traffic coming from the left (there are houses) so right turn on red is always safe! Did I mention the fact that at this intersection is a school bus stop?
Now, I must go passed an elementary school, a technical school, another elementary school, into the one high school building's back parking lot, then passed an elementary school, a middle school and then finally my high school building. Did I mention the fact that there is only one way into the high school lot and one way out so all the traffic bottle necks there? Did I mention the number of teenagers with hoodies up, I-pods on, cell phones in hand, walking into traffic without looking, I have to dodge? Or the number of parents who randomly stop in the middle of the road to let their children out of the car and then attempt to make a u-turn (in the middle of the road!) I have to avoid?
Now add snow.
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