The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...

I recently started working with a new client and my five minute commute has now turned into a forty-five minute one. Staying true to my New York roots, I refuse to brave the traffic on 495, and therefore have taken on a round-trip that involves three forms of transportation: a five minute ride in my car, a ten to twenty minute ride on the shuttle bus between my company's headquarters and the closest Metro station, and a ten minute ride on the Metro. The other ten to twenty minutes? Waiting for the Metro and shuttle bus.
When I commuted between Manhattan and Stamford, CT, I loved using the time to indulge in trashy novels. That commute was simple - all I had to carry was my purse and a book, and once I was on the train it was a non-stop trip. This one, however, is full of inconvenient interruptions, and I'm hampered by my purse, my laptop bag, and my lunchbox. By the time I really get sucked into a story, I have to stop, gather my belongings, transfer, and then get settled again. It was kind of hard to get focused on the story.
At first I listened to my iPod and furiously checked my smartphone, but after the first two days that got boring. And then I found the perfect solution...Shakespeare. See, my former students are performing in King Lear in the beginning of March, and I'm planning a big trip back to NY to see them and my best friend and former colleague whom I haven't seen in seven months. After getting off a marathon phone session with her two nights ago, I realized that if I was going to sit through three hours of King Lear, I darn well better re-familiarize myself with the plot. Although it used to be my second-favorite Shakespeare play, I haven't read it in about thirteen years, and the details had kind of faded...hazy memories of some nasty sisters a la Cinderella and a crazy old man in a winter storm, but that's about it. A few years ago, I sat through Love's Labor's Lost without ever having read it and it was torture, even for a Shakespeare-phile like me! Here's the thing though...who has time or inclination to actually sit down and read King Lear? Turns out, I do. It takes about ten to twenty minutes to read one scene...the exact amount of time I spend on the shuttle bus. The thin book tucks neatly into the side pocket of my laptop case. And I find that Shakespeare is easier to digest in smaller increments.
So, madwomen, that's what I've been reading lately. And considering the mind-numbingness of the eight hours I put in at my new client each day, I'm actually a little bit glad to stretch my brain each morning. Right not I'm on Act I, scene iv. When I'm done, I might try a little poetry...