driving me crazy

When i first got my driver's license, a world of opportunities opened up. No longer would i need to arrange a ride or to be picked up and dropped off. no longer would my driver's day off regulate my weekend. no longer would i need to plan beforehand exactly how i would get somewhere and exactly how i would get back home. you get the picture.

Years later, that is not the case. Now i almost never leave home unless i absolutely have to or really want to. It's not because I'm aging quickly or becoming boring, but because driving has become a recurring pain in the ass. The hassle of taking a car out, struggling through traffic, then parking it somewhere else makes one consider and reconsider if the trip is worth the hassle. Leaving home has to happen at least an hour prior to when you need to get where you want to get. Making a dash for it is not possible anymore.

I don't intend to describe what happened to the streets but i am attempting to describe what has happened to us because of what happened to the streets.

Due to absence of decent radio service in Cairo, a car ride without decent music is hell. Therefore, forgetting my ipod is no longer an option. I remember at least a few times where i would drive back a short distance just to get my music.

My car is becoming a telephone operation base. Almost all calls are made while driving. Long calls, short calls, work calls, gossip calls, everything. The good thing about this is that less time is wasted on the phone outside of the car.

Because of the inevitability of the extended driving durations, car companions have to be picked with care. It is has become a serious mistake to take in someone who is too boring, too talkative, too loud, too nosy, or, worst of all, has an opinion against my own in music, and dares to change my songs. It is even worse when i am the passenger and the driver has terrible music taste and i end up with a physical and metaphorical headache caused by the crap they play.

Everyday i say i'd hire a fill time driver, just for myself. So i would never ever have to drive again. He'd take me to work and back, drive through afternoon traffic, take me to the other sides of Cairo which I'm too lazy to drive to myself after the morning trek. But then i change my mind. I like to be in control in my car. I want to turn up the music as loud as i want, and most of the time sing along. i want to be able to repeatedly turn the air conditioning up and down. at the times when i do have a driver, i annoy him as well as myself with a million requests.

Im drifting off the point here. The point is traffic is driving me crazy and its not getting better and its taking longer to get anywhere and i will go nowhere that is not worth the trip. I'm sure you wouldn't either.