I remember when stores were closed on Sundays and holidays. Now we White Rabbits have stores open 24/7, one-day dry cleaning and 24-hour news stations. I don't need appointments for manicures and haircuts. Of course, I don't need appointments for emergency rooms or morgues either. Maybe there's a message there.

From carpool lanes to road rage, the message when we drive is we're in a hurry to get everywhere. We're in a hurry to get to the next place where we're going to have to wait.

I can't remember the last time I heard someone say they were taking a shortcut. Now shortcuts are the only way to go. Traffic reporters tell us about alternative routes to miss the traffic we should have left earlier to miss.

I live in Los Angeles. I know traffic; but I don't always know what causes it. Although there's no accident, road work or merging freeways, there's no movement. I try to think of my Starbuck's cup as being half full. The traffic's caused by too much of a good thing - living in Los Angles.

Cell phones let us feel we have some control over time management when we're stuck in traffic. Cell phones compensate for having to wait until we get to our destination to make a call. Cell phones let middle-agers make calls before we forget what we want to say.

I remember when eating out was the exception - not the rule. We don't have time to cook. We defrost and microwave. Because we have less control over what we eat, we have less control over what size clothes we wear.

I try to control time by trying to carry everything upstairs in one trip and trying to do too many errands with one quarter in the parking meter. I can hear my grandmother saying haste makes waste. She wouldn't have understood multi-tasking - unless it meant lecturing me and my sisters at the same time.

When the phone company said I'd have to dial 1 + the area code when calling local numbers, I heard myself complaining about the extra time it would take. If Grandmother had heard me, she'd have thought a lecture about not rushing would have been good time management.