Not a bad looking bike. Your situation sounds a lot like mine. Several years ago, I bought a Gary Fisher Nirvana hybrid, very similar to your Giant (at least your giant doesn't have the massively heavy suspension fork like my GF ). Anyway, I bought it because 1) I could only afford one bike and therefore 2) I reasoned that a hybrid would be the "best of all worlds". Turns out, it does everything okay but absolutely nothing exceptionally well. Pretty quick after I bought the bike I made a few upgrades: I traded the suspension seatpost for a rigid one and added a Brooks B17 saddle. I also added a rack and fenders.

I started commuting 28 miles round-trip to work this summer. I felt like the 700x35 OEM tires were slowing me down, so I went for a set of 700x28 Vittoria Randonneurs which improved my speed considerably but are still wide enough to be comfortable. I did a trial run one Saturday and quickly realized that the stock grips and lack of hand positions on the flat bars were making my hands numb and sore. I ended up adding a pair of Ergon grips and some inexpensive bar ends which solved the numbness issue. It's still probably not the best long distance commuter, but it's much better than before the upgrades.