My Little Girl, Drive Anywhere, Do What You Want, I Don't Care, Tonight, I'm In The Hands Of Fate, I Hand Myself, Over On A Plate

--"Behind The Wheel", Depeche Mode

I'm in desperate need of a road trip. Yes, it's only been two months since I went to Chicago, but I feel myself yearning to travel again. I don't know why I get like this. Maybe it's the notion of seeing and trying new things, but I have the skulking suspicion it has more to do with the idea of being in a rut at home. I've always been the type of person to be able to suffer through my day if I have something to look forward to. It's akin to when you're a student in school and you pin your thoughts on the upcoming weekend, or the upcoming break, or Summer vacation. For most of this year that goal was my Chicago trip, but now I don't have anything to look forward. I think it's high time I fill that vacancy.

When Ilessa suggested that we should maybe take a trip for my birthday, at first I was against it. I thought it too much of a hassle and too time-consuming to be something I was in favor of. Yet as time has progressed from that initial suggestion and I realize how dreary life gets when every week seems to blend into the next, I'm beginning to think that she might be onto something there. I could probably do this on my own, but I would feel bad taking her suggestion and not taking her.

What's important to me is that, if I do go on this trip, I don't want us to have an itinerary. I don't want to know where we're going or what we'll be eating or even where we'll be staying. I want every day to be a complete and utter surprise. A long time ago my parents took my brother and I on a road trip up to Seattle and back. I consider it the best family vacation we ever went on. What made it fun wasn't because we were on a strict timetable, what made it fun was the fact that my dad would more or less drive for four hours in the general direction of Seattle and then stop for the day. We never knew where the next city we would be staying in, which made it a necessity to find diversions and sustenance from among the local sights, shops, and restaurants. I think that's the real spirit of traveling. I think that's what keeps me wanting more every time I go on vacation, that sense of exploration and never knowing what I'll find next.


you're behind the wheel, tonight

All I know is this--I need to get the hell out of Dodge. I don't know why and I don't know where, but I'm beginning to feel, as my dad once famously said, "too cooped up in here." I've got the disease and the only cure is the open road.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers