Commute

When I was considering the transfer from Bromenn to Carle Foundation Hospital, there was one resounding question:  what about the commute?

Bromenn is a whole six minutes from my house--the car scarcely has time to warm up.  I actually could bike to work if I felt inclined.  It's nice.  I could forget something at home and know that I could dart home over a break and pick it up.  I hadn't bothered to look much at the weather, even.  At most, I was vaguely aware of the weather to offer our home to anyone that needed to travel a longer distance.  Ultimately, there would be enough people talking about upcoming weather at work or in other outlets that I could plan the small difference of time to start and scrape the car.  

Well, there is more to consider for a fifty-mile drive.  I've been working through the calculations on timing for when the weather turns gross.  I have backup plans for when the weather is very gross.  I have managers who think ahead and get patients rescheduled so we don't have to come in on those very gross days at all, as proved by the pre-Christmas storm warning response.  

There are times when I really would rather be checking something on my phone or completing a task I could do if someone else was driving.  Driving into the sun both ways also has its challenges.  But there are also times when it's...nice, for different reasons.  I sip my breakfast and pick an album to listen to that I haven't heard in an age.  I've left the radio off and let my mind simply wander for a bit, process and decompress.  I've restarted the Welcome to Night Vale podcast and am revisiting those spaces.  I have made many catch-up calls on the drive home, enjoying a reconnecting space.  

And I have seen many lovely sunrises.

Yes, the photo is a repeat
But it was still a gorgeous morning

The twelve-hour workdays resonated well with me, so I do miss that, and on the other hand I am (now that the holidays are over) starting to find an actual pattern again, which was not something afforded to me by that schedule.  I'm rearranging how I approach appointments, which will take some figuring, but I have been able to figure it out before on an eight-to-five-Monday-through-Friday pattern.  

I'm in the malleable part of the process, testing what patterns might serve me best and slowly adding in new pieces again.  There is no normal yet, but there will be.  And then there will be healthy deviations from that normal.  

It's good to take advantage of that space and simply enjoy the drive.