Walking home from work

I have been looking forward to today all week. Not because it means the work week is half over (though that's clearly a given), but because I had read earlier this week that it was going to be in the mid-high 50s today. To me, that means one thing: walking home from work instead of taking the subway. My apartment is approximately three miles from my office, and in the spring, summer, and fall I stop buying subway passes and walk to and from work nearly every day. It only takes an extra 15 minutes per trip, and it's great exercise. Plus, I just love being outside in the open air rather than squished against angry people on the subway; that's just a horrible way to begin and end a day. Walking is a million times better, PLUS I spend the time enriching my mind with awesome podcasts like This American Life, Real Time with Bill Maher, Planet Money, and my all time favourite, Fresh Air.

This afternoon, I was seriously jumping out of my seat at my 3pm meeting - I couldn't wait to get outside into the perfectly cool early-spring breeze, catch up on last week's Real Time, and break in my new sneakers. This is the first time I've walked home from work since October, but I made it in record time: 40 minutes! It's supposed to rain tomorrow and cool off for the rest of the week, but I can't wait until i can do this everyday.

Walking to and from work is not only good for me, but also great for my wallet. Instead of spending $60 on a monthly subway pass, I load (from a pre-tax deduction from my paycheck) a flat amount of about $60 to start. At the end of the month, I decide whether I need to load any additional money or not. Historically, I spend about $25/month on the subway when I don't have a pass, which means I'm saving an extra $35 each month for 8-9 months of the year, an annual savings of about $300.

Podcasting the Economic Crisis

I've been listening to Marketplace on NPR every day for the past year. It's a great podcast, but I just can't take the depressing updates on the market every day right now. I've unsubscribed from the podcast for now, and Planet Money has replaced the show in my podcast rotation.

If you've heard one or both of the This American Life shows that dealt with the economic crisis, you'll be familiar with the Planet Money guys (they were behind those programs as well). They bring the same pragmatic clarity to their discussions of the insanity that we're facing right now as they did on TAL. Listening to people explain what the hell is going on in a way I can understand is really reassuring, even though the news is so scary right now.

If you haven't already heard the original TAL programs, you can find them here:

355: The Giant Pool of Money
365: Another Frightening Show about the Economy