Let's talk about how I sat in traffic for an hour and a half last night

shall we?

On my way to rehearsal, just past the state line, I was talking on the phone to someone about singing a funeral on Thursday, when it seems that the two lanes of traffic came to a complete halt.

And it didn't move again for an hour and a half. No one was getting by, because apparently an enormous piece of metal debris had fallen from an overpass onto the interstate below and it was going to take three to four hours to get it cleaned up. I texted the musical director to let her know the situation. She said for me to turn around and just go home, if it looked like I'd be sitting there on the highway not moving for the duration of the rehearsal-- no such luck. No exit, and a HUGE barrier in the median.

So I thought, well, wouldn't this be a great time to put into practice all of the excellent coping skills I've been learning from my "guru" (this is not my therapist, Sally, but someone else, for those of you who THINK you know who I'm talking about!). I could feel myself kind of starting to get pissed about the situation, as many other of my fellow traffic-disaster-ees definitely were. There were lots of people standing outside their cars cussing on their cell phones. And, really, I said my fair share of choice words to Joe about my predicament as soon as a trucker brought the news that we would be sitting there a while. But I was determined not to let the situation turn me into crazy bitch girl.

The first thing I did was look around the car for a container to pee in in case there was an emergency. The second thing I did was thank god that I didn't have to pee at all at the moment.

For people who like to feel like they are in complete control at all times (when in fact none of us really are at all, PS), being stuck in traffic miles from an exit is a real bummer. A real potential psychological disaster meltdown. So I decided to just accept the situation for what it was: something I had to go through, something I could not get out of or get around. And that was that.

I'm not going to tell you it was fabulously fun. But it wasn't the most terrible hour and a half of my life. It went by relatively fast, as I focused completely on ACCEPTING the situation instead of resisting it. Resistance to circumstances like this can make them unbearable, as I've found myself saying things like "I absolutely cannot believe this shit!" "Of course THIS had to happen!" "I am so furious about this." When none of it can help what's going on at all, and only serve to help me create more inner drama.

So I got to rehearsal an hour late. And life went on.