Sitting aimlessly
March 05, 2008 by Chris
For the second day in a row, I’ve pulled into a parking space at work to find a person sitting in the car next to me.
“Well, that’s not so strange,” you say.
You’re right, it’s not. I get to work around 8:30 AM, and so do hundreds of other people in my building.
The difference is that these people are just sitting in their cars. The cars are running … they’re not on the phone, maybe they’re listening to the radio or whatever, but they’re not in the process of getting their things together and getting out of the car.
I find this odd.
Marcus
Perhaps they are smoking? I know some people sit in their car and smoke when it’s too rainy to stand outside.
Chris
I guess that’s possible; I’ll keep my eye on them tomorrow. I think I would have noticed a burning stick hanging out of their mouths, but who knows?
John Martin
My first thought was that they are having a Driveway Moment:
What Is a Driveway Moment?You’re driving along, listening to a story on NPR. Suddenly, you find yourself at your destination, so riveted to a piece that you sit in your idling car to hear it all the way through. That’s a Driveway Moment.
Reports of those stories to NPR help them to decide on the stories to include in their Driveway Moment series.
John Martin
Arg… sorry about the formatting. Obviously, I can’t use table tags in my comments.
michelle
i agree with John. i’ve sat in my car multiple times to finish listening to something on the radio, mostly NPR stories.
AerialPJ
I have driveway moments all the time…usually it’s to listen to the end of a song…or taking a moment before I have to be “on.”