<p>I have a very long commute 2 out of 5 days, and had an iPod adapter installed in my 2006 car. If you have a newer car it may already be there. I mix it up and listen to lots of different podcasts, Spanish lessons, professional development information, audiobooks, music. It really does make the time fly by.</p>
<p>BCEagle has disappeared. An hour commute isn’t ideal, but it is doable. I had many co-workers (and still do) who commute an hour. I agree that the tricky days are going to be weather, appointments, etc. Hopefully the management will loosen up on the working from home after you prove yourself. 1 day a week skipping the commute would be great.</p>
<p>I enjoy my Sirius radio a lot on my commute (which is pretty short, really). Going against traffic is always nice, too.</p>
<p>I commute at least an hour and a half each way, with two hour commutes frequent and three hour trips happening several times a year. It ages you and sucks the life out. I have chronic kidney disease as a result of the commute. My last next door neighbor did the same commute and developed colitis as a result. If you have any alternative, don’t do it. The stress of wasting so much of your life, not to mention the times when there are emergencies that require you to get home quickly and you can’t, will make you crazy. You will leave so early and get home so late that you can’t do things like doctor appoint,me to on work days, so you will use sick and vacation days for things like that. And around holidays it will all be worse.</p>
<p>495 may be the saving grace. Use google maps and play with the traffic indicator, at the times you’d commute. Much better than 128.</p>
<p>I used to have to get through those fast snows that would dump in Westboro- it was hard to believe people were truly used to it.</p>
<p>3togo, I would take local roads to 495 and then it would be a straight shot north on the highway.</p>
<p>Commuted to LA from the burbs for 8 yrs and to OC for 12. Even with the train, the novelty wears thin after awhile. Those years were honestly very hard on my marriage, as I always found an excuse to stay in town for dinner rather than tackle the freeway parking lot. When my kids were in HS, I really lost track of them. I took a paycut and chose to stay close to home, even that’s a struggle with the hours! There are those with whom I commuted that absolutely didn’t mind it, I was ready to gouge out my eyes after three months. There’s only so many audiobooks and podcasts one can take. And forget carpools, I had one driver listen to gospel radio all the way in, ughh. </p>
<p>And ditto what SCVmom said, haha don’t even think of getting into a car on weekends! I would never say don’t do it, but please consider closer options first.</p>
<p>I used to commute to Manhattan from CT, like VeryHappy. It took about 2 hours, each way. On the plus side, one could read or work on the train, and there was a walk at the NYC end, so some exercise was involved. But it made for a LOOOONG day.</p>
<p>Subsequently, I took a job 50 miles away in CT, which was an hour commute. I listened to books on tape, and thank doG for NPR. It is wearing, no doubt. You have to really like the job.</p>
<p>I have experienced plenty of traffic jams on 495 when driving back and forth to CT. Almost all of the time they are westbound, though. Same thing with the Mass Pike. 495 is also devoid of rest stops where you can go to the bathroom and get a cup of coffee. (Thank heavens for Charlton on the Pike. 
)</p>
<p>Oh yes, I almost forgot, stay away from the roads on getaway Friday before three day weekend and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at all costs! I spent one Wednesday before Thanksgiving stuck in 3 hour traffic, I got out and walked the last quarter mile, yuck this thread is bringing back horrible traumatic memories haha. And in LA, commuters don’t give a dang if you’re pregnant or an octogenarian, you will not get a seat on a crowded transit!</p>
<p>^ Lucky you had the train. My commute there was before all that. Drive or nothing. I could sail into downtown LA, if I left home by 7. I think 12 minutes on the fwy. I was the one to turn on the lights. Loved it. Also commuted to OC. In those days, the traffic reporting stopped at 6pm! As if traffic did. I’d take that over my experiences in Boston, but I was on the west side, in LA.</p>
<p>495 north to NH is not usually bad in the morning. You will pass within about a mile of my house, but I make the commute to Back Bay. Usually an hour and a half inbound and an hour and twenty minutes home. Combination of driving, commuter rail and subway or walking. Driving the whole way would take about the same time but would cost more due to parking. Not fun, but I have been doing it for over eight years.</p>
<p>I don’t believe a long commute causes chronic kidney disease or colitis. If that were the case, many of the folks who commute in the DC, NY, Boston LA areas would have these issues…many.</p>
<p>My husband has commuted at LEAST 45 minutes each way since 1984 and has no health issues related to kidneys or digestion…or anything else for that matter.</p>
<p>There are many folks who do that commute between NH and the greater Boston area.</p>
<p>I was wondering about that myself! Zoos- did you have too much coffee and hold it too long? :)</p>
<p>Among the instructive ways to think about incremental commuting time is to consider the additional time as a fraction of your current personal/free time. Often an extra half hour is 1/3 to half of your personal free time. </p>
<p>Having said that, the job market is not exactly throwing opportunities left and right. I’d think long and hard about rejecting a job that i might need because i was concerned about the commute. Maybe you’re in a position to develop other opportunities, and that’s different. But be careful. Its always easier to get a job if you already have one. Plus, as you pointed out, if you’re traveling anyway, the commute becomes moot.</p>
<p>I commuted 1.5 hour each way from NJ to NYC for 10 years. I used to drive to a park and ride outside of Lincoln tunnel and take a bus shuttle to NYC. I had a very nice SUV to drive back and forth. I still remember when the gas price went up I was quite happy because there were a lot less people on the road and I would save 10 min each way. I got used to the commute. I was lucky that I didn’t get sick while commuting.</p>
<p>Wow, thumper, did you really just call me a liar?</p>
<p>Probably more people than you might think develop chronic problems from commuting. Did you ever ask? MOWC it isn’t about coffee. It is about the days when the commute hits three hours plus and you can’t get off the bus that has no bathroom. Unfortunately, that happens about a half dozen times a year. last year after hurricane sandy it was the case for seen weeks straight. For my neighbor, the stress of that happening too often caused her colitis. For me, on New Year’s Eve of 2010 I got on the bus at 6:50 am and didn’t get off the bus until 12:10 pm. Why, you may ask? There was a tiny coating of unexpected snow which caused buses to slide into each other on the helix at the Lincoln tunnel. Since the snow was unexpected, emergency personnel were not in place and those of us stuck in the contra flow bus lane weren’t moved for hours. I developed a serious infection, which wasn’t the first in the almost 30 years I have been commuting. I personally know multiple people with back and neck problems due to the commute and others with anxiety issues. I have actually been politically active on this issue up to very high levels in the state, so I respectfully submit that I would bet I have had more conversations with more people with extreme commutes over the years than most people. Remember, I live in the borough that the census bureau consistently reports as having the longest commute time in the nation.</p>
<p>I didn’t say YOU didn’t have those health issues. What I said these things are not caused by long commutes. It is very possible that you would have gotten these issues anyway.</p>
<p>I honestly do NOT believe that long commutes will cause colitis OR chronic kidney disease in MOST people. maybe it did with you, but like I said, if this were an absolute, there would be tens of thousands of people with these issues in major metro areas.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have had the kidney infection that caused my problems without that particular commute, and I can tell you unquestionably that my neighbor’s anxiety over the commute caused her colitis. What I will agree with is that this doesn’t happen to large numbers of people because most people wouldn’t put up with this for the decades that I have because of an Individual family quirk. My neighbor sold her house and moved to a much easier commute and never had another problem. My point to the op was that over time, long commutes can really weigh on you in ways that you might not expect. I think it is a terrible long-term life choice, and I feel qualified to say that after having been the rare fool to do it for almost 30 years. For a young woman, pregnancy can be miserable with such a commute, as can picking up a kid from daycare. Life is just too short to waste so much of it commuting if there is ay other option.</p>
<p>Any commute is miserable when you are pregnant…but that’s another whole thread!</p>
<p>To the OP…do that drive if you can during the week…as if you were commuting. See if it is OK. Check out every exit for pit stops if needed. In that neck of the woods, there is probably a Dunkin Donuts with bathroom at each exit. </p>
<p>Like I said earlier…friends did this very same commute…and it was not bad (about an hour or so). At the end of a few years, they decided to relocate to NH.</p>
<p>On 495 it really helps to be going the opposite way of the traffic!</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP is going to have serious health issues from an hour commute in her car. Commutes aren’t fun, and **** happens, but everything has trade-offs! I was afraid I was going to have to work and live in a different city when I lost my last job! Thankfully, it all worked out for me in spades! I know people who are in that situation and would kill for an hour commute instead of living 3 states away to be able to have a job.</p>
<p>Sometimes terms may get used interchangeably that may describe similar, but not identical symptoms. Most of the time true “colitis” is caused by bacterial infection, virus, etc. There are other GI disorders that may be caused by stress, IBS or even impaction. But they may not be the same disorder. My dear BIL calls every cold/runny nose he has a “upper respiratory infection” or “pre pneumonia” or “walking pneumonia” or what have you. Heaven forbid he would just have a common cold…</p>