Hard Drive

I love the road. She calls to me; I am at her beck and call the moment I get behind the wheel. I don't understand it. I really don't like driving. I don't like being cooped up in a car all day. I prefer walking actually, given a choice. Yet, there's something about the open road that sings to me. I hearken to its siren song. That's how I felt coming into work tonight. It's almost become my ritual, driving in with the music blasting.

Truth is, what I really love is driving at night. Give me a nice open road around midnight with my iPod tunes or my Groove Select station on Pandora pumping out wave after wave of Progressive House and Trance music with the windows down and the high beams on and I swear I'm in Heaven. There's something...I don't know, epic about it! I feel like I'm in a movie or like a kid who just jacked a car for a joyride. (Not that I have any first hand knowledge to reference that to. I'm just guessing here.) I can't explain it as well as I want to. I wish I could just plug my brain into the computer for a second and recall just how good I feel on the open road so as to properly articulate the experience. It's the stuff of fantasy; in a word, it's MAGIC.

I know I sound like a kid around Christmas time but I have good reason to. God-willing, at the end of July, I'll be on the road once again. Moreover, while I enjoy a good drive alone, this road trip (and that's exactly what it is) I have the good fortune to be accompanied by a couple of great friends. Bubbles(Auri), Tyger(Danielle) Steve and I are heading north. I want to go visit Montreal but my darling Bubbles HAS to see Niagara Falls, she says to me. So, that's the plan. The Falls first and then off to Montreal. I haven't been this excited since the last road trip I went on. (Incidentally, it was also with my Tyger and my Bubbles.) I can't wait to hit the road!

The Ties That Bind.

Know you what a true friend is? Seriously? Do you know? Can you tell, out of the either handful of exclusive friends or the scores of acquaintances you have which ones are your true friends? I can. Here's how...

Have a fight with one of your friends. Call each other names. Say the meanest things you can think of. Send awful text messages and hurtful words. Threaten to never speak to them again and then...call them the next day and ask them how they're doing. Talk to that friend for hours and mention how much they are missed. Let him/her know just how much you are looking forward to seeing their face and holding them close.

If that friend doesn't even notice that little hiccup of friendly banter; that speed bump in the cordial road friends usually take, then you have a true friend in that person. Friendship isn't defined in how well you get along with someone you're compatible with but how well you get along with someone that you constantly clash ideals, motives, emotions, etc., with on a daily or weekly basis.

Sometimes they'll drive you nuts but you wouldn't have it any other way. I know I wouldn't. God has seen fit to bless me with a few of these friends. Moreover, I just now realized, once again, just how lucky I am for that.