Old Friends and The Beckoning Road

Last week after my PRACS dismissal, I hit the road. In the past 12 months I've left town three times to visit my dad (birthday, Christmas, father's day), once to go to a doctor's appointment with my mom, and two times to go to Winnipeg. Actually that sounds like a fair amount... but I have never traveled less. Even when I had a part-time job that demanded I work most weekends I still managed to get out of town at least once a month. I blame the price of gas. It has robbed me of my wanderlust. It hurts me to remember when gas was 95 cents a gallon. And I DO remember those days.

This trip was an annual event brought on by my friend Karol's trip to Sioux Falls to visit her parents. As I left town I splurged and washed my car and sipped my Diet Coke as I plugged in my MP3 player and enjoyed some music... First off, I played my Midwestern Mix Vlme. One and I loved it all over again. I hear songs from it in my MP3 shuffle all the time, but it plays so well straight through. I feel like I can really HEAR songs better in the car on the interstate as I drive with no distraction. First of all, "Groove Me" by King Floyd is my current favorite song on the disc. I just love it. So this was a perfect song to hear as I pulled on to the interstate. Next, "Golddigger" by Kayne West is sort of the fun surprise on the disc. And "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates made me laugh out loud as I recalled a recent conversation with a friend on a related topic. (music speaks to me, I tell you) Of course I love all the songs on this disc, but I have to say it was the less familiar ones that struck me on this day.

"Today" by Joshua Radin
"Barbeque" by The Animal Liberation Orchestra
Here are the lyrics to Barbeque:

The road is long and windy,
Like a good mystery unfolding
It twists and turns
In colorful subplots and sunburns
And fake out endings
And sometimes my patience in the whole process starts bending

As I attempt to unravel the web
By rehearsing and reversing and perversing and traversing
Along the doubt laden extension chord threads
Of my life

And in this life we're free to dream what ever we want to
But that doesn’t' mean that your dreams are gonna come true
Instead as a way of getting us to move
Life dangles your dreams in front of you
And unable to resist the temptation
We continue

And it's clear to me that this life is gonna be
All about the dangling possibilities that keep turning in and turning out
Yes it's clear to me that this life is gonna be all
About the dangling possibilities that keep turning in…
The road is long and windy
Full of twists and turns
But before you can rise from the ashes
You've got to burn baby burn

Welcome to your Barbecue
Where we roast all the dreams that never came true
Welcome to your Barbecue
Pig out and dream anew
Welcome to your, welcome to your, welcome to your barbecue…

Next I listened to my More ABBA Gold CD and was filled with love for this band all over again. Of course by this point I was itching for human companionship and so I had the joy of visiting with my friend Beth Ann and with Julie... I just love that as I am driving there is nowhere else I am supposed to be... nothing else I am supposed to be doing. It's a fantastic feeling.

In Sioux Falls, the troops rallied and we had an evening meal and 9 children (and one more on the way) spilling out of the Jennifer's new house (she and her family, moved in only a week earlier... how's that for accommodating?) I got to draw, read stories, make rice krispie bars, play rockets, discuss dinosaurs, put on kid-shoes, assist in a nosebleed treatment, look at pictures. I got to hear about Belize, Maine, about new jobs, and a move to Texas. I grocery shopped, visited while Jen and Neil packed for their trip to visit his parents, and shared Starbucks with Rebekah while we explored some downtown shops. I enjoyed Kaladi's, a coffee shop bistro on Minnesota Ave. and stocked up on some books for school at Barnes and Noble.

Of course, I didn't stop here. But tales of of Iowa can wait for another post.