I had the opportunity to take a break from my Metro travels and drive my car to work two days in a row. $22.50 poorer and two days later, I relate to you my story.

I hated it.

I know driving is supposed to offer freedom and all that. Ha.

I found myself tense and stressed when I arrived to work each of the days. On the way to work I had to fight traffic, and all I had to do was drive from Capitol Hill to Foggy Bottom! Seeing the masses of cars converge on downtown was not a happy sight, especially from the middle of it. My white knuckles, wrapped around the steering wheel, missed their daily Express newspaper.

It was less than 500 feet away from my work building when I missed the Metro the most. That last 500 feet took longer than the previous mile. Pedestrians, vehicles, police, jaywalkers, traffic cones, emergency vehicles, and taxis all conspired to prevent me from getting to work. I can just see it — one traffic cone saying to the other: “Hey, move over. You’re not blocking traffic enough!”

But the moment that really drove me back to the Metro permanently was when I had to move my car after work to another building (the parking garage I parked in is strict about time). So yeah okay I move it, expecting to park on the street. Bad idea. I had to spend 20, 30 minutes of precious time trying to find a parking space on the street. Apparently there was something going on at GWU (which we are near) and mommy and daddy-mobiles were illegally parked everywhere.

So I, of course, parked illegally also. The worst part was being in my car, feeling trapped, and that my building was right there and I couldn’t simply walk in. I had to worry about my car. I had to worry about parking it. I had to worry about taking care not to get a ticket. I had to worry about checking it every 30 minutes to make sure its OK.

I am proudly ceding transportation reponsibilities from now on to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Bring it on, buses, metrorails, and Circulator! Frankly, I am always amazed to see the legions of traffic each day. I would actually go out of my way to ensure that I live and work near the Metro.