I’ve had a half dozen blog posts waiting in the wings lately, but at this point I think it’s better to just combine them into one ‘what’s going on’ post, rather than 5 or 6 separate posts. Enjoy. Mass Transit Over the past month or so, I’ve really started to try to ride MARTA to work every day.

So far, it’s been fairly successful, and it has saved me a lot of money in the process. Now, there are problems with this decision. The main issue is that fact that I live in North Fulton – not exactly MARTA country.

To get to work using mass transit, I have to drive 7 miles from home to the park/ride station on Windward Parkway, take the bus to the North Springs station, then ride the train to the Buckhead station. From there, i walk the mile or so to work. As you can see, it’s not exactly a commuter’s paradise.

However, if current gas prices were to hold, I would be saving around $70 a month on transportation costs. That doesn’t even include the decreased wear and tear on my car, so it’s not a bad deal at all really. The funny thing is, due to the awful traffic that exists on 400, it takes nearly the same amount of time to drive from Alpharetta to Buckhead as it does to drive to a station, get on a bus, drive to a train station, take the train to Buckhead, then walk a mile to work.

Sad, but true. While MARTA is far from perfect, I do like avoiding the stress of sitting in traffic in the AM. I replace that with reading news on my iPhone, listening to music, and reading books. It’s also nice to take a little stroll in the morning on the way to work.

I always feel a lot more relaxed and ready to go when I get in now. Hopefully the daily afternoon thunderstorms don’t ruin this for me. I figure that if I can make it through August okay, I’ll be on easy street after that. finding a house / apartment Speaking of Alpharetta’s insane distance from downtown, Michelle and I have started talking about finding a place to live in the spring.

That’s obviously very exciting news for a number of reasons, and I hope that we do end up a lot closer to downtown than where we’re at now. She works up in Alpharetta, so I’m sure we wont’ be too far south, but anything is an improvement. I’m hoping for somewhere in the Sandy Springs area, near the MARTA line, to ke