Commuter Confessional

I've been carpooling for about two months now. I alternate driving duties with a coworker from another department I'll call G.

G and I first met in a half day statistics class that all R&D people were required to take. It was the first time I'd met him but far from the last. Shortly after that, he transferred into a more closely related department to mine and he and I ended up on a project together. We were working well together and talking with some frequency, but we weren't what you'd call "friends."

Since then, though, something weird has happened in the car. We've developed this odd sort of intimacy when we're in the car. Oh, we talk at work and clown around when we run into each other.

Once we're in the car, it's totally different. It's like all pretences come off. We don't agree on religion or politics or a lot of other fairly big issues, but we can always discuss them openly. We open up about all sorts of things from work issues to family issues to the debauchery we were a part of in college.

The saving gas and helping the environment is great, but this unintended benefit was the nicest surprise of all.