NPR is the cat’s pajamas! The bees knees! Just good stuff!

In honor (somewhat) of confession Friday over at Modgblog, one of my favorite blogs on the interwebs, I am going to make another geeky confession. I am totally in love with NPR. National. Public. Radio. In case you grew up Amish or live in a bubble, NPR is government funded and viewer sponsored, almost entirely talk, and pretty much bent on educating the masses. It’s like PBS but on the radio and I am a huge sucker for it. I could (and have been known to) listen to it for hours. I subscribe to podcasts, I read some of the online content, I would be a member if I listened to it as much as I used to.

There’s the rub, I used to listen to it every single day for several years. Whenever I was in my car I would list to NPR. NPR in my car – it even rhymes! Most of my friends hated taking trips with me driving because instead of music I would almost always have NPR on and be listening to whichever show was on at the time. But, when I moved into the big city, all of that changed. The trade off for the city life was that I started taking public transportation and I sold my car. To my brother. In California. That’s a whole other story that I will get in to another time. Just trust me, I will never see that car again.

Of course, it makes total sense. Living in a city with the awesome public transportation system that Philly has there is no reason to be clogging up the streets with another car that I would hardly ever use. I would be paying for really high insurance, being my age and living in a city know for bad drivers, having to worry about parking, the dreaded and evil PPA, not to mention gas and all the maintenance costs of a car. I now just have to pay for a SEPTA pass or tokens and I am good to go. I pay for an occasional bus ticket to NYC or plane ride to further places, and it the long run I save a lot of money. For the times I need a car I have PhillyCarShare, which is an awesome service that I can rent a car at any time for a few hours at minimal cost and maximum convenience. But, with all of these pluses, one of the biggest minuses is that I do not get to spend my quality time listening to all my friends on NPR.

I remember in college I would listen to Car Talk on Sundays on my way to play rehearsal (something else I will tell you about in another post). I would listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” and laugh with Paula Poundstone and/or Mo Rocca on my way to that mall on Saturdays or The NPR new programs on my way to work in the morning. That is one of the only things I miss about living in the places I used to live. I try to listen to my favorites while cooking dinner at home, but I can barely hear it over the sounds of cooking and I can’t really pay attention or I burn things.

Maybe as a treat to myself I will start putting aside time to listen to these great programs. It is so nice to listen to that stuff, and I’m always learning new things when I do, which is always a plus in my book!