On the Road.

Sometimes I find myself comparing life in Virginia to life in Kansas. Surprisingly, I spend about the same amount of time in the car. The difference is the mileage. In Virginia, everywhere we wanted to go was less than fifteen miles away. Pinkberry, church, work and even the White House. But with horrible traffic, a twelve mile trip could easily take forty-five minutes.

Since I moved home, I feel like I live in my car some days. The gyms I like to go to are both farther away. Work is a bit of a commute, over twenty-five miles round trip each day. I take the highway to work, church and to see my mom. The miles add up quickly even though the time in the car is about the same. I do not miss the traffic one.tiny.bit and I do some of my best thinking in the car these days.


To my mother's great delight, I spend less time on the phone in the car. That's precious NPR time. If I hurry and leave work on time, I can usually catch a good chunk of Fresh Air. And undoubtedly I've missed some big news event during my eight hours asleep or at work, so I need NPR in the morning and in the afternoon as well to catch me up.

When I first moved into the new little house, I was obsessed with Top 40 and country. Soon I was really tired of it - the songs repeat a lot - and I listen to a lot less music now when I'm driving or cooking. Mostly NPR all the time.

There is a very special exception in my car: mix CDs my friend Lindsay makes. Let's just say she's the mix master. No one else can put Christian music, Diddy and Wilson Phillips as well as she can. My taste in music and knowledge of different artists is definitely better because of Lindsay.

 Such a sweet soundtrack for the move home and miles around KC...
"I need to get back to the place that I belong" (Diddy)
"Why do we try? When it always ends up fine?" (Matt Wertz)
"Don't you know? Don't you know things can change? Things'll go your way if you hold on for one more day!" (Wilson Phillips)
"And the older that I get the more that I feel wiser. With the love of friends and family - get stronger and it carries me on through." (The Roots)
"And when all's been said and done, It's the things that are given, not won, Are the things that you earned." (Gomez)