vanpooling, it's a gas...

You know how people all around us are talking about how one of the good effects of the horrendous gas prices is that people are taking alternate commute options to work and isn't it great? Yeah, well, if you're one of the people who has been taking such an alternate commute option for a long time the gas prices mean that there are consistently a lot more people joining you in your alternative commute-style. My van is a twelve passenger van, there have consistently nine, ten, or eleven people on the van for the past few weeks (and that's with a holiday weekend and some drama diluting the pool).

Yes, it's probably better for the economy and it's certainly better for the environment. And yes, Al Gore would be happy. But, here's an inconvenient truth for you, I'd like some more personal space, please.

Vanpool of another flavor

Another friend of mine rides in a vanpool to Everett everyday, about 30 miles from Seattle for all you out-of-staters. From my conversations with her, it seems like she *likes* the people in her van. It's left me wondering whether 1) I'm terribly judgemental; 2) the people going to Everett are less grating than those going to Olympia; or 3) I'm just a keen observer of the idiosyncrasies and oddities of those around me. Since I like number three the best that's the one I'm going with, although I have a sneaking sensation that number one might have something to do with it as well.

a note from the bus

A friend of mine takes the bus daily to Tacoma, which is also a pretty crummy commute. We alternately commiserate and compete for bad (or sad) commuting stories. A few weeks ago she told me this gem:

I was on the bus in the morning, drinking coffee, staring out the window when I noticed that insurance ad that references The Brady Bunch, with a large picture of the Brady's house.* So, I started thinking about their house and the show and I realized that there's no way that the house in which the show was filmed could look like the one shown from the street.

The friend then went on to describe the architectural features of the inside house that didn't match up with the outside house. I think it involved the outside house being a split-level, but I tend to gloss over when people use architectural terms, so I may be wrong. Anyhow, the point of the story as it relates to this blog is that when you have a long commute you have far too much time to sit and think about everything, over and over and over again. Yet another thing you people with a reasonable commute have over those of us who less than reasonable commutes.


* The ad she was referring to was this one from American Family Insurance:

Tony's back

So, after we left Tony (an event I will now be calling "the incident"), he didn't ride the van for a while. I guess he needed to cool down a bit. Or, he just didn't have to work in Olympia for whatever reason. Since I'm left to my imagination, though, I'm going to assume it's the most dramatic thing possible -- he needed to calm down and somebody had to call him and beg his forgiveness.

So, we haven't seen Tony since the incident. It's only been a week, but I had certainly noticed, and I'm sure others had as well. Well, today Tony was back and was it ever awkward. Seriously, a normally group of chatty folks (and me) were silent going down and back. Very weird.

Again, a little bit of vanpool drama.

vanpool etiquette training

We got an email from Valerie, our vanpool coordinator, today informing us that we have to have a training on Monday to go over the role & responsibilities of sitting in the co-pilot seat, driver responsibilities, and other issues of proper vanpool etiquette. It also included an apology to Tony for leaving him behind as well as the following statement: "To say I’m a little concerned about this is an understatement of gargantuan proportions."

This guilt trip would irritate me less if the lesson on proper vanpool etiquette included the following:

• After about 10 minutes into the drive, shut the hell up. No one cares about whatever it is you're talking about.
• Take off your jacket before you ask for them to turn off the heat/on the air conditioner

Since I doubt that it will, in fact, cover those points I reserve my right to complain about this training in a future post.

beer makes everything better

Yesterday afternoon my office left work early to celebrate a colleague's promotion. So, since I didn't want to drive to leave work early, and since I couldn't celebrate with them and still make the van (they were celebrating nowhere near my office), I decided to grab a drink closer to work and then catch the van. When I was telling my fellow vanpoolers this, Fred offered to join me, for as he said, "no one should have to drink alone, and I'll take any excuse to leave early on a Friday."

So, on Friday night Fred and I wandered over to the Fish Tale Brew Pub to enjoy a few pints and dish on our fellow vanpoolers. You know, I have to say it was nice to hear someone make some of the same observations and complaints.

Also, it turns out the van ride is SOOOOO much better with beer. It turns out that the annoyance from other riders, the traffic, and the insane air conditioning level just rolls right off of me after only one. I think I've found someone a new Subway/Metro/bus advertising campaign: public transportation, better with beer.

leave no vanpoolers behind

We left Tony yesterday. Accidentally, of course. But all of us, and it was a fairly full van, forgot that he was on in the morning. Luckily, Alison remembered as we were getting on the freeway. But, by the time that we could turn the van around Tony was gone. Sara went to look for him (as they work in the same building). After about five minutes, Tony came out and yelled at the driver (and apparently at Sara), complained that he had already called a cab and could not cancel it, and stormed off. Granted, he had every right to be angry, after all he was left behind. But, the whole thing reminded me how awkward we northwesterners are around conflict.

This was high vanpool drama.