Parrotheader.com

I love being driven. It's not that I hate driving. I still derive quite a lot of joy from it actually. But having to drive myself to and from work each day in fairly heavy traffic does take some of the luster off it. This is why my biggest wish list item for all things automotive is a fully-functional (and safe) autopilot. I'd love nothing more than to be able to climb into the back seat of my car and tell it to take me to the office. I could then fill the rest of the time reading, surfing the web, watching TV or even napping. Suddenly my commute would go from being too long to too short. Likewise, I'd actually look forward to long road trips as it would give me a chance to get some much-needed rest.

Last week I had to attend a series of meetings in Atlanta for one of our larger clients. I honestly wasn't very thrilled with the prospect of going. I'd attended a couple years ago and most of it was relatively uneventful. But such is the nature of business. Plus, the client usually gives us some decent schwag for attending (this year we each got an Ipod Shuffle.)

Five people from my office attended - two male VPs (one being my boss) and three worker bees (two female coworkers plus myself.) To accommodate five people comfortably we opted to rent a minivan for the trip. The two bosses quickly settled into the second row of captain's chairs where they had more room to play with their laptops and other tech toys. The girls rode up front and actually did all the driving. Being the most junior (and most flexible) male I took the bench seat in the back.

And I couldn't have been happier to do so. I had room to stretch out, my own A/C vent and I could fully recline my seat since no one was sitting behind me. The other non-drivers felt compelled to pull out their laptops and spent half the trip struggling to get a solid, dial-up speed cellular connection (and thus didn't get much of anything done the entire time . . . remember, I could see all their screens from the back ;)) I was able to kick back, relax, listen to my music/podcasts and just enjoy the ride. While I never really went to sleep, it was an extremely soothing experience during the drive to and from Atlanta. What's more, while we were in Atlanta I never had to concern myself with fighting traffic or finding our way around in less familiar territory.

To a lesser extent, this is the same reason I always volunteer to sit in the back whenever a group of my coworkers head out to lunch. I rarely fight for 'shotgun.' No thanks, I'll just take the seat in the back. It's one of the only times I can actually look around and see all the stuff that's going on along my daily drive ("when did THAT building go in?!)

Perhaps for my next car, I'll save most of the money I would've put toward a nicer vehicle and instead use those funds to purchase a part-time chauffeur. It's definitely the way to go.