Cruisin'

Tonight, I leave on an extended roadtrip. I have things in storage in Atlanta, GA and so I will make my way, from Houston, TX - by way of Austin - to Atlanta and then turn around and drive through New Orleans back, to Houston. Me, being the travel junkie I am, can't wait to cruise for the next five days. Some people can't stand driving days on end. Those people, didn't grow up in Texas, where everyone drives everywhere. Need to go to the cornerstore? Let me grab my keys. Need to go to dinner to a friend's house in the neighborhood? Let me grab my keys. Want to go the park and let the kids and dogs roam free? Where the hell did I put my keys?!? (You get the gist.) We Texans drive, a lot. And in Houston, we drive a whole lot. If a gas station doesn't provide the luxuries of a rest stop - that gas station ain't gonna last in the Texas market - way to play smart Volero (formerly known as Diamond Shamrock).

What makes a person a travel junkie? What is it about a person that makes them want to live out of a bag, eat on the fly, and play to the mercy of new regions and different time zones? Maybe we all assume it's a free spirit. I hear road trip and I picture "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" ( i.e. drug binge across the Nevada desert with nothing but the open road). However, with a full time job, a full time family (see: extended family), and a master plan to take over the world of entertainment (stops and smiles as paparazzo takes a picture from across the street), I just don't have the time to get hooked on any drugs. Maybe after I date Lindsay Lohan, but that's only if Britney turns me down. And even then, who has time to take a drug induced road trip then - Even Willie Nelson got caught smoking pot... ON HIS OWN TOUR BUS.

Anyhow, self medication aside, I am very excited about this trip. I'm a free spirit, in a extremely practical, well articulated kind of way. I go with the flow, I generally swim with the tide. I'd say that I'm pretty laid back. It's the rest of the world that's neurotic, and of course - when in Rome. Sometimes, I get caught up in the storm and I find myself raising hell on a surface level. It's on accident, I don't mean to go through the motions without thinking. I don't plan on getting hung up on the small stuff that don't really effect my world. I don't plan on getting involved in situations that waste my effort, energy, and time - but thus is life, and I am in Rome (in a metaphorical, "I also live in the world" sense). So yes, I surely don't mind spending the next five days cruisin'.

I lived in Salt Lake City for eight months. Besides the extremely interesting dynamic provided by the Mormons that run shit there (quite impressive actually), I loved my experience there. Along with being abnormally beautiful (as in the taste of Mormons), it was a refreshingly laxed place to live. People spent time walking their dogs in the park, riding clean public transit, reading at the library, and stopping to stare at the mountains looming in the distance. It was kind of nice. I kind of appreciated that about SLC, and I hope to recapture that.

All of this leads into the idea of time. Time - ever changing, always flowing. Do you fight it, or do you use it? I have heard time compared to water - but what does that mean? Disney's Pocahontas said "what I love most about rivers is, you can't step into the same river twice" and, when I am at my best, I often find myself thinking time in the same matter. Yeah - I'm definitely looking forward to the drive...