i live out near the walmart, target, and crappy mall. around the holidays, traffic gets INSANE! i’m talking backing up onto the interstate, turn a 2 minute trip to the interstate from my house into 45, people everywhere INSANE. the main problem i’ve seen this year is people not using all the lanes of traffic. there are two lanes to turn into Target, but everyone backs up into the first one. there are two lanes to get off the interstate, but people mainly line up in the first one. you can imagine my hesitation to go out shopping this morning.

i had to get birthday presents for three friends to bring to a party tonight. plus i was also going to Christmas shop for my sister, then stop off at the grocery to get some needed supplies. i’m going to be making the Bobby Flay biscuits again. i’ve been wanting to make them because it’s been a while, and i wanted to alter the recipe and use wheat flour. i also needed to be online to get Ryan Adams tickets at 10 am. the RA Road Trip 2009 is coming together (3 shows right now), but the tour schedule is going to prevent it from being one big road trip. more on that later though.

i left my house about 8:40 and was able to get home about 11:15. i got EVERYTHING done, and it was awesome. Lowe’s had what i needed, then i stopped by my parents’ house and got the tickets (5th row center!), then went to the grocery. the traffic didn’t catch me that bad. i was ‘that guy’ and drove up the emergency lane at my exit because of the people all lining up in one lane to go left, and i have to go right. other people were doing it first! it was peer pressure!

btw, i think one of the funniest things is what the local DOT (i guess) put out for all the holiday traffic. on the overpass going towards the mall are signs that say “Use 2nd Mall Entrance”. the traffic backs up really bad because everyone tries to turn at the first mall entrance, which backs up traffic onto the overpass and inevitably the interstate. i thought it was funny because i’m always in my car yelling at the people to just use the next entrance because there are too many cars at the first one. you’d think people could figure that out on their own. now if they could make a sign like “Use 2nd lane of exit” we’d really have something.