i love driving.

i drive with one leg curled up under me. with the windows down, blowing my hair all around 'cause i don't care what it looks like anymore. music blaring, singing at the top of my lungs. (i live for the strange looks and knowing laughs.) i drive with one hand on the wheel and the other in my lap; one can't be out the window, because i'm left-handed.

sometimes i get in the car to do something mundane, and i just can't get out. so i drive and drive. i like to know that i can. that at any moment i can drop what i'm doing and drive, for as long as i want, as far as i want. i love that freedom. i can't bear the thought of ever losing it.

today i took a two-hour trip to the post office. i took a right out of the parking lot and kept going down route seven, and kept going past the point where i'd never seen any of it before. beyond the factories and car dealerships it really is quite beautiful, driving the length of the ohio river, beside the woods that are just starting to turn colors. a leaf blew into my car and out again and i giggled uncontrollably. i felt so a part of it all, so relaxed, so in tune with a part of me i too often forget. an impatient driver passed me at one point, his engine roaring nastily. i couldn't understand his rush. look around - how could you wish it to pass more quickly?

i have nearly zero road rage, which is probably the only reason i can drive aimlessly for hours like this. on the way back i got stuck in a terrible traffic jam, but it wasn't as frustrating to me as i knew it was to the other drivers around me. it was just... constraining. civilization and industrialization holding me back once again.

i would have driven longer, but of course the gas was low. when i went down a little county road to turn around i discovered a beautiful wooded, twisting street. i would have loved to continue down it as long as i could, to see where it would take me. if i had it my way, i might not have been back in time for dinner. but alas, the gas gauge told me that 'tang was getting hungry himself, and i couldn't very well ignore him.

i want to see everything. i want to go everywhere. i need to believe that i can.

i love driving.