November 2005
Time is Money

Have you ever tried to make dinner but kept forgetting to take things out of the fridge, walking back and forth for what seemed like a hundred times until you’d retrieved all the necessary items? Last week, I had one of those days, only instead of making vegetable soup in my kitchen, I was driving all over town making a million trips and wasting tons of time and probably making a new hole in the ozone layer while I was at it. Four hours later, after I had finally made it (late) to Alison’s birthday happy hour in Clarendon, I sank into my chair, ordered up a high-octane cosmopolitan and thought out loud, “Why do I never have enough time?”

The girls, used to my rants by now, gave me a mental head-slap when they reminded me about taking transit. I wondered again, why, when I was supposed to be their transit Svengali, I was always the last one to figure this stuff out. How could using my head save me time and money?

Not that I didn’t have good intentions. Flashback to earlier that day at work. 11:30 a.m. and I knew I had to pick up my clothes at the cleaners, get a gift and card for Alison for that night, and retrieve my oldest pair of Jimmy Choos from where it was being repaired, all in addition to grabbing a bite to eat before I left work for the day. Ah, the best-laid plans . . . two hours and three meetings later, I still had not made it out of the office to any of my destinations and was eating a jumbo bag of Cheetos at my desk. By the time the day was over, I was so frazzled and happy to be going home that I had completely forgotten to do any of my errands. I called Erika from my cell as I sat on the bus (yes, I was that annoying girl on the bus talking on her cell phone, probably a little too loudly) and asked her if I could put my name on her gift instead of my own. Ever the procrastinator, she was on her way to pick one up as well. No solution there. I was nearly home when I realized I had forgotten to pick up my dry cleaning at the store across from my office. I couldn’t very well attend happy hour without my new slinky top, so as soon as I got home, I hopped in my Jeep and off I rode.

Rush hour on Friday, the last place anyone wants to be is in his or her car. But there I sat trying to get back into Rosslyn to the dry cleaner. I finally got there and dashed in, leaving my hazards on to pick up the top. Eight minutes and a $25 parking ticket later, I was back in the car, cursing and on my way back into town.

While I was circling the block looking for parking, I remembered my shoes sitting at Neiman Marcus in Friendship Heights. Off I zoomed in the opposite direction to pick up my shoes. Forty-five minutes and $12 in parking-garage fees later, I was heading back toward Dupont Circle when I realized that I needed to go to Pentagon City in Arlington to pick up the gift I had ordered for Alison. Long story even longer, I got an $80 speeding ticket on my way back from the mall, and, all told, the time wasted added up to 4 hours, $117 in tickets and fees, 53 miles of wear and tear on my car, and a piercing crick in my neck. What was I thinking, or was I?

Alison, flattered that I had spent so much time, money and effort on her, laughed out loud at my story and told me that I should have just been patient, spent the extra time at the end of the day catching up on the stuff in Arlington using Metro or the bus, doing the same to pick up my shoes. Even with all the stops involved and taking transit, she said, I still would have had time to shower and change for happy hour (no, I didn’t shower—so what). With rush hour rates, it would have cost less than $10 and taken me under two hours.

I couldn’t believe that I was sitting at happy hour doing math, for one thing, and, for another, that the simple act of trip-combining could have saved me (and my paycheck) so much aggravation. I guess sometimes using your head is a lot better than using your car.

10. Walk
9. Bike
8. Take ART, Metrobus, or Metrorail
7. Combine trips
6. Vanpool
5. Carshare (Zipcar / Flexcar)
4. Telework
3. Run errands during your lunch hour
2. Slug

1. Designate a driver and carpool to happy hour