I am a creature of habit. I depend on the consistency and routine of my existence to take the edge off my stressful life. On a normal morning my husband drives me in and drops me at my office. I spend the average commute on my smart phone catching up on the news and listening to my meditation podcasts multiple times. I arrive at work relaxed and mentally prepared for my day.

Yesterday my husband had to drive out of town for work. Which of course meant I had to drive myself in to work.

I thought that would be fine; after all I am a self sufficient, empowered, 21st century woman.

I had no idea.

Traffic, oh my god, the traffic. People drive like lunatics. I swear I spent half of the drive idling at a standstill behind a pickup truck.

I thought I would replace the smart phone news reading with the radio. What has happened to radio? I heard a full 37 minutes of commercials, 36 seconds of news, and the first 3 chords of a song.

When when I finally got to work and paid for parking (?!) I then had to walk to a block to Starbucks and then three frigid blocks to my office building.

I thought it couldn’t get worse, but then I had to drive home. I was so frazzled by the time I got to the house I had to insist we go out for dinner because the stress of having to prepare the family meal was more than I could bear.