Monday Traffic - The Perfect Storm

As many of you know I commute 35-40 miles into work every morning.  This includes driving 30 miles to the park and ride then hopping on the bus for the last stretch into Portland.  On a normal day I make it to work 15-25 minutes early and happily sip coffee until my shift starts.  After a while I forget why I get to work so early, but I remind myself that it's my just-in-case spare time and that I need it.

I love it when I'm right.  Even when I'm arguing with myself.

This morning was one of those mornings that I proved to myself that I am right.  I like to call it "The Perfect Storm" (for traffic). 

Here is a list of events that creates said "Perfect Storm":
- Day Light Savings Time yesterday, we lost an hour. 
- It's finals week (and I sympathize with all of the students that lost a valuable hour of potential study time).
- No one is sick or called in sick today (I have no solid proof, besides the million extra cars on the road).
- No one had vacation time either (same belief as the sick time).
- Everyone was travelling in the same direction.
- New bus driver who doesn't know his new route. 

As I'm parked on I-5 North I begin to make up possible scenarios that would be the reason for my lack of movement.  Here are a few of my theories: 
-All of the stop lights are stuck on red causing the cars to be stuck on the highway with no available exits. 
-All of the police officers decide that today is the day to patrol the highway and pull over speeders causing everyone to slow down to a stop. 
-Drivers, at random, realize that they are about to spend at least 8 hours of their day at work, panic, screech to a sudden halt and scream "NOOOO!!! I'm not ready yet!!  I need more time!!". 
-There are lots of wrecks due to sudden panic attacks by random drivers also causing there to be more police officers on the highway resulting in everyone slowing down and rubber necking. 
-The rain might have something to do with it, but it's Oregon and always raining so I don't accept that as a valid excuse.

I overheard a guy on the bus talking to a coworker on his phone say "Good luck getting to work today"... traffic is so bad that we are wishing one another luck.

If you haven't noticed I really like lists.  Not like chore lists or shopping lists or anything boring like that.  I just like to break up my paragraphs because I tend to ramble on an on and I feel like the lists help me stay somewhat organized.  Let me know if it's not working, otherwise I'll keep my lists.

Bummer of the morning (besides traffic):  I had an 8 o'clock staff meeting via conference call that I was 4 minutes late to.  I had to wait until after that meeting to get my coffee, but I have coffee now which makes everything better.