The Little Things: Bus...Service?

Today is part 2 of a 10-part series entitled "The Little Things: acknowledging that which helps me dominate". Today's topic: the Duke Bus Service.

To be fair, the odds are clearly stacked against the Duke Bus Service being customer-friendly. And it all starts with timing. Namely, each H-1 is given 20 minutes to cover a round trip between PG3, North, and South which takes about 25 minutes before rush traffic and somehow incorporates 5 left turns against traffic and like 7 stop lights. As such, one rarely has time to complete driver ADL's like 'stop and pick up riders'. Add to this unfortunate setup the following: 1-general passenger discontent that they've been relegated to PG3 in the first place, 2-road construction which if it were a kid's movie would be entitled The Neverending Story, and 3-the inexplicable time warp of the PG3 garage (how does it take 10 minutes to find a spot???), and the PG3 bus stop is never gonna be a happy place.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that there is a bigger picture here. I would suggest that the average MS3 (Office employees excluded, of course) occasionally finds themselves looking for ways to waste time throughout the day. Either because we're waiting for ELISA's to finish, waiting for our PI to acknowledge our presence, or because no one with an MD responds to emails within 72 hrs, like Peter in Office Space some of us find ourselves with only about 15 minutes of real, actual work per day. But if we sit at a desk reading the internet, watching TV shows, or finding other ways to pass downtime (www.sporcle.com), it's human nature to feel guilty about our own inactivity.

And in this light, what the Bus Service offers is a mental and physical reprieve. For its ability to turn a 10 minute drive into a 45 minute 'commute', the Bus Service allows me to feel not guilty, but angry, about how little time I have each day. Like a friend taking the fall for my crime, the driver offers me an external outlet for my internal frustration, and accordingly transforms me from 'bad guy' to 'victim'. This provides me with exactly the type of inner tranquility one needs to dominate. And, arriving to my desk at 10:45 AM sharp, dominate is exactly what I will do. For that, Sir or Madam bus driver, I say thank you.

Next Week: The Medical Center Library.