Just Drive

Life has been moving at an icy, glacial pace up in these here parts, and you'd never guess that the illustrious First Day of Summer was so near.  (Where was spring?!)  And I must admit, it's been difficult to find the energy to do pretty much anything.

We experienced another very wet, very cold weekend here in the Northwest, which resulted in several naps, too much money spent, and not a single ray of sunlight felt.  It got to the point where I convinced myself that it was actually November and winter was upon us, and this was something to be excited about: tea, pajamas, movies, and inside fun with the dogs.  This only kind-of worked.  Mostly, we just snacked and slept and bemoaned our absent sun.

Oh, but we did go out for a drive on Friday night.

All week I knew I wanted to get out of Seattle—I didn't care where or for how long.  Friday actually got clear and warm (if you can call 68º warm, which we do) for a few hours in the evening, and I knew this was our chance.  After a rather lethargic and slow-as-snails start, we finally hopped in the car around 7:30pm and just started driving.  I gave Jon the first option: north or south?  He chose south, so I made my way to the I-5 South entrance and hopped on with no particular destination in mind.

My iPod was fully charged and packed full of new songs.  Jon picked the playlist, I did most of the singing.  In between squeakily belting out the lyrics to The Smith's "A Push and a Rush and the Land is Ours" and Naya Rivera's rendition of Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" from Glee, we decided to aim our course for... Tacoma!  Anti-climactic, I know, but hey—we weren't driving to get somewhere, we were just driving to drive.  (Plus, even though I made a stop there on our road trip a few years back, I've never actually visited Tacoma in the 2 1/2 years I've lived in Seattle.  For shame.)

And you know what?  For the hour and 20 minutes we were actually in the car, the drive was nothing but bliss.  I miss driving so much, particularly on the road with other drivers who know what they're doing.  This last Friday, I kept thinking back to high school and college, remembering the drive between my hometown of Castro Valley and where my parents currently live down in the Bay Area, and the drive from there down to Santa Barbara for school.  The smooth roads, the lights, the calm, the music, and the ability to reflect on things in peace.  Driving was my meditation, and it's something I rarely ever do anymore, and never for very long distances.

When you're confined to a city where you live, work, and play, it isn't so easy to just get out and go driving.  And here, in Washington, there's really nowhere to go.  Or, more importantly, no one to go and visit.

So, for now, I will play "Asleep" by The Smiths and dream of being back in a place where I can feel infinite again, with more of the people that I love.

(Oh, and with The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie coming out in the next year, if you haven't already, you should probably read it in anticipation of many more references from me.  They're inevitable.)

* Image credit: Pirate Vixen via Etsy