Now that I work a second job in Surrey, I have joined the dreaded Over-Bridge Commuters Club.

I once vowed never to work over a bridge, ignoring jobs in the North Shore, on the south shores and in Pitt Meadows. Once before I broke my rule and interviewed for a position in Richmond. After a two-hour wait along Marine Drive to get on the Knight Street Bridge, I just barely squeaked into my interview a scant five minutes early.

The Port Mann Bridge into Surrey is not as hellish as it is getting out of Surrey. From the 176th entrance to the #1 until the last call at 152nd Avenue, traffic inches forward at about 5 km/hour as the workforce streams out of Surrey and merges painfully into the line of commuters.

I’d be demanding the twinning of the Port Mann with the rest of them except that I’ve found a solution to bridge crossing woes. Ive turned my tedious waits into intellectual adventures, all thanks to the public libraries of the GVRD.

The Burnaby Public Library allows borrowers to take out up to ten books on CD for two weeks. So far this week I’ve listened to replays of CBC shows, comedians and Noam Chomsky. I’m onto the Vagina Monologues. While everyone else around me clutches their steering wheel in agony, I chant vagina, vagina! with a chuckle.