Commute.

So the last two days of work have been all about training. The company has a few offices in Chicagoland, but as an official remote employee, I’ve never been to these offices before. However, since some management training became available, I decided to sign up, dust off my badge, and make a trek to the ‘burbs.

Having never officially commuted for work in Chicago, I left myself plenty of time to get to the office. I needed to travel about 25 miles by car (17 miles as the crow flies). I allowed myself 1 hour and 45 minutes, because I am no stranger to Chicago and I know how traffic works.

It turns out I needed 1 hour and 30 minutes of that time. I had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee, meet fellow employees in person, and settle into my seat at the training room at a comfortable pace.

I actually loved the experience of commuting again, despite the traffic doing what it does. It was much more interesting than the commuting I engaged in back in Upstate New York, where I’d wave at the same cow or have to slow down for an Amish buggy delivery milk day after day, but being able to people watch other commuters on the various expressways along my route was a refreshing change of pace.

I might have to head out to the offices more often.