An essay of malcontent

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By CheapReveal | June 11, 2007

Have you ever been at a point in your life where you realize that you are absolutely fully concentrated on one thing, and that all other things no matter how important or vital take a back seat. Exercise enthusiasts refer to it as a runner high, lovers refer to it as being in the heat of passion but call it being in the “zone”. Well, this morning I was in the zone.

For the most part this world can be divided up into two types of drivers - those that know how to drive in traffic and those who do not. Well this morning let me tell you, I was on the fortunate side of this fence. Every morning I hit traffic going to work and it is usually a complete gamble on what time I will actually get there. Las Vegas bookies could try as hard as they may to set up odds on when I will arrive at work but really, they would only be guessing. Sometimes I think about what life would be like if gamblers and betters were constantly scrutinizing my life for odds. I’m sure I could learn a lot from them…

SIDEBAR -

Think about it, if someone told you everyday what the odds of your acting a particular way, would you change the way you act? If random-fact-guy came up to you every morning and said things like “5 to 1 odds you skip your afternoon class today” or “2 to 1 odds you talk to a girl all night at some lame party and she doesn’t go home with you” your perspective on life would change… I guarantee it.

Now anyways, back to the traffic thing. I can say with complete and utter confidence that today I cut my driving time in half because of the fact that I was in the zone. I went to bed earlier than usual so I also go up earlier than usual (still a little jet lagged from my timezone switch), and so I was on what my fellow employees and I like to call the great road (route 128/95). The whole “great road” nomenclature wasn’t my idea but I took a fond liking to it due to its resemblance to the Native American naming convention of adding basic adjectives to the beginning of well known objects, i.e. Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Standing Bear… you get the picture.

So now, 7 AM, in my car, music on, seat belt buckled and I’m starring the Great Road directly in the eye. But instead of weeping and cowering as I may normally have done, I instead grab “Great Road” by the throat and throw him down to the mercy of my V6. What may have normally taken me an hour, takes me a mere 30 minutes. I get into the correct lanes when I should, I stay out of the way of trailers, I avoid leaving too much room between me and the car in front, I don’t accelerate when I know the car in front of me will be braking anyway, I block the merging traffic from the exit on-ramps and before I know it I’m getting off for my exit. I am so completely immersed in what I am doing I don’t even notice the Owen E.P. I was listening to has long since ended and that I have been driving in silence for the past 15 minutes.

This my friends is what it feels like to be victorious. This my friends is what it feels like to stare your enemy in the eye and throw him to the ground. This my friends is what it feels like to get to work early…?