Road Rage Pending

I can definitely tell school has begun. I believe fellow daily work goers can sympathize with me.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I definitely forgot that it was the first day of school. I know school makes any day a little bit busier but there is nothing that beats that first day of school. For me and my neighbors though I think we have it a little bit rougher. We live in the center of many Taylors/Greer area schools. Turn right out of my neighborhood and you have Brushy Creek, Eastside and Northwood, to name a few. Take a left out of our neighborhood and you will encounter traffic for Buena Vista, Riverside High and Riverside Middle. Our neighood entrances are the center of so many narrowly-missed multi-car pile ups, but somehow we have adjusted to sliding in to that traffic.

Wednesday hit me unexpectedly. Due to feeling under the weather, I missed work the day before, so in my head it was still Tuesday. I got up and began to get ready. I ate a good breakfast, caught a glimpse of the morning news (I am a news junky) and headed out the door, not even thinking, "maybe I should leave a little early today." I hopped in my car and got to the end of my street, to just be stared in the face by total chaos.

Parents and students built upon the normal rush hour, but I tried to not let that phase my trip down memory lane.

My mom dropping me off at my first day of school. The first time I had my own car. My last first day of high school. Then I was snapped back to reality by Mrs. The-School-Zone-Speed-Limit-Doesn't-Apply-to-Me who decided to ride so close to me it could have been mistaken as skilled Nascar drafting. It was so frustrating. Me, the one who usually just mentions out loud to my fellow drivers to please ease off, was on the brink of road rage. The time it took me to get out of my neighborhood, down the street past Riverside and barely skimming into work on time, I was exhausted and ready to go home for the day.

After collecting my nerves, I decided there was no reason to go all Chuck Norris on this total stranger. At that moment I decided that there had to be a better way to deal with this and began to list some ways to help with the school traffic. Now, I am going to share my short list with you.

How to survive school traffic

1. Get up early and leave earlier. This is probably one of the easiest ways to go about it. Just set the clock 30 minutes early and hop on the road ahead of all the parents still making lunches and students resisting their summons to class.
2. Get out a map and find a new way to work. This particular one sounds a little bit crazy. For me I would have to cut a whole new entrance in our neighborhood if I wanted to accomplish anything. You though, may have an opportunity to slip down an old back road, or use a different side street in hopes that none of the parents have found it yet.
3. Change shifts at work. If you are absolutely desperate and you have the opportunity switch to 2nd or 3rd shirt. A little extreme, but chaos avoided.
4. Bike to work. While this could be considered dangerous and is not a forever answer due to cold weather this is a possibility. If you have a good bike lane or even a sidewalk like we do, try it out. Just make sure you wear your helmet.
5. Learn to cope. As useless as this sounds, if you are not a morning person and/or you have no way or detouring your daily route, make something of the now longer drive to work. Get your favorite coffee ready to enjoy before you leave or find the best dance CD in your collection and just make it fun.

Just wait, Christmas break will be here soon enough, and we will have the roads back to ourselves, at least for a little while. Until then, try one of these. I personally like the fifth. I got a whole dance work out in this morning.

Oh, and watch out for those school zone speed limits. The police department is out in full force.