Since I’ve started my new job, I’ve been commuting for 39 miles each way from my house in Puyallup to Factoria. It’s a new experience for me, usually taking from 1.5 to 2 hours each way to get to my destination. Just last year, I poked fun at two of my brothers for doing such crazy commutes. Now I’m one of them! I’ve learned a few things that help keep me sane during my journey:

• It helps to take another route that may be a few miles longer, but traffic isn’t as heavy so you feel like you are getting to work faster. I take highway 18 up to Snoqualmie and back down to Factoria on I-90 which is about 15 miles longer than going 167 to 405, but I get there in a faster time.
• Gotta have your iPod. Especially some sweet podcasts to keep you entertained. I like StarDate, This American Life, Photoshop TV, RE: Hope sermons and Ricky Gervais.
• In the Seattle area, you’ve gotta get some good wiper blades for all that rain. I just picked up some sweet Rain-X blades last week and they are awesome.
• Get yourself a nice smartphone with net access so you can check the traffic with live updates.

Hopefully our house will sell soon and we’ll get our new place in Issaquah, which will cut my commute down to 15 minutes. Oh man I just pee’d a little bit just thinking about how cool that will be!