I love riding the van pool to work. If I'm tired, I can close my eyes during the commute in, there are people to talk to, and it saves me money on gas and car maintenance. All big pluses.
The only thing that routinely makes me nuts is the radio.
You see, in the mornings I like quiet. I have since I was a child. When I get up in the morning and have coffee, I keep the sound on the TV muted. All I want is the weather and I can pick up that information from the graphics.
Unfortunately, the morning van drivers all like the radio on. I could probably survive it if it were music--as long as it wasn't something loud like metal. :-) But no, they like the news station with all the talking. Gah! This really harshes on my morning mellow.
I certainly can't complain about it and I won't. I started bringing my iPod with me and plug into my favorite ambient music, but the guy who sat next to me that morning thought I was being unfriendly.
It is kind of off-putting, but it had nothing to do with not wanting to be friendly and everything to do with trying to block out the yammering from the radio. I guess I have a hard time understanding why anyone wants noise early in the morning. That's the time to be all mellow and zen-like. It could also be (if it were quiet) a great opportunity to think about the story in progress.
