If one removes all the scholastic/educational benefits of the Pipeline program (and there are many) there is one side-effect bonus that I didn’t expect to encounter.

My commute.

You see, my normal job is 15 minutes from my house.  I don’t even have the time to listen to more than three songs, or get the weather, on the way to my job.  I have an enormous amount of work with Pipeline.  I have tried to do it on the bus, but I get car-sick, even in the front seat.  I cannot read.  I cannot play games on my phone for extended periods of time.  I have a Zune (courtesy of Craig, who I forgot to give a check to), and I’ve been listening to music.  One of the sweetest moments I had on the bus was passing the sump on Douglaston Parkway…I had the live version of Sting’s “I Burn For You” on, and there was a Heron that took flight….me and my music and the Heron…it was beautiful.

Another side-effect is THOUGHT.  I don’t have much time to just THINK nowadays.  Sometimes I think about school, sometimes about myself and my life, sometimes about my friends…I have a friend that’s moving, and I have yet to process that.  I have to talk to my therapist about it…I’m too broken to process it alone.  We’ve moved so many times, and each time all contact was cut off from the previous moves, so I’m not even sure what that means to me any more, how “moving away,” whether that is just to the next state or across the continent, relates to me and my world.  There are other friends I’d like to be closer to, as well.  I have to figure out how to make that happen.

Although I like the opportunity for thought, I think it would be bad if I had to do it every day.  I’d probably resort to Dramamine to get my work done.  But once a year for several weeks, I think it’s just lovely.