This is me "Enjoy(ing) a perfect morning drive" on a shuttle in downtown Chicago

July 2010

                                                                                                                     © Christine Mastroianni, all rights reserved

What makes your morning drive perfect? Does it depend on your eventual destination or what sort of activity awaits your attention upon your arrival? Or are you able to isolate your journey from its completion and derive pleasure simply from the changing scenery that scrolls past your vision and the control that you untimately have over your your gas pedal and your GPS? Perhaps the events that preceded your morning drive are still pirouetting around in your head and affecting your excursion, be it negatively or positively.

Does it depend on the temperament of the atmosphere.. whether or not the sun is gleefully lighting your way? Maybe it's governed by the person occupying the seat next to you or behind you, or the absense of anyone at all.

How about traffic? Does the imposition of congested avenues force your blood pressure to soar and your mood to plummet as your hands impatiently grip the steering wheel in frustration? Or do you merely sit and wait, listening to your favourite tunes, accepting as a part of life the fact that many other people just happen to be travelling in the same direction as you at any given hour?

Perhaps you are just not a morning person and the phrase 'perfect morning drive' is completely non-existent in your world because you would not be driving anywhere before noon if it were up to you! Or maybe you agree with whoever posted this ad on the side of the Grey Line Shuttle Bus and believe that the perfect morning drive can only take place on a golf course.

For me on that day, the morning drive was indeed perfect because instead of being tasked with maneuvering a vehicle in a complex, unfamiliar downtown, I was instead able to relax and revel in my eclectic urban surroundings, just as a person on vacation ought to do!

By the way, I am in the upper left corner of the picture, sitting on the bus behind the girl in the white headband, shooting our reflection!