Reasons People are Driving after Midnight in the Suburbs
I went to school in Atlanta, so for four years I lived in various places in the city. The combination of college and city life meant that it was finally socially acceptable for me to go out late and return home even later. I was used to leaving at midnight to pick up a friend and get a milkshake, or getting home at three am to drunkenly make mac and cheese with your roommate. When you live in the suburbs, your post 9pm choices fall exponentially.
Sometimes there’s a 24 hour Wal Mart (but I live more in Target country). If you don’t feel like roaming the isles of Wal Mart, where dreams go to die, your options are scarce. You can choose between getting a drink at a local bar–where you will undoubtably encounter plenty of regulars, i.e. people who don’t want to go home to their annoying kids and/or spouse–or getting a burger and the closest 24 hour Mc Donald’s. Sometimes I just need to leave the house after midnight and drive around to remind myself that I still have the same freedom I once did in the city; there is just less to do with it now.
Recently, while on one of these drives, I noticed a lot of other cars on the roads. On a Thursday. Clearly, suburbanites are a home dwelling creature. I came up with the only reasons people seem to be driving around after midnight out here in suburbia:
- Returning from a once-in-a-while special outing to Atlanta, like a Nora Jones concert, or Cirque du Soleil.
- Driving home from vacation at grandma’s.
- Teenagers sneaking out.
- Me. Trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life.
- Deer. There are lots of deer in my neighborhood that like to stand in the middle of the road, stare into my soul, and scare the shit out of me when I come home late.
- …..?
writers aren't people [exactly] 
I remember when I was in college. I working in a few take away restaurants. I got pulled over so many times driving home from work.