Driving Thoughts

I left work a little early on Friday evening to run an errand down to the main office, which is close to where I live, but an hour's drive or so from where I work. Generally when I drive, I really don't think about much, my mind just kind of drifts, with very few solid thoughts. If someone were to ask me what I was thinking, I'd have to dig very deep to come up with an answer. So today I thought I'd try an experiment. I would attempt to pay attention to where my mind drifts. Let me take you on that little journey.

...now I can't think too hard about this or my mind will shut down, just follow your thuoghts...

white dashed lines sliding by "shlup, shlup, shlup, shlup" sometimes I coun't them, or try to follow their outline with my eyes, but white dashes usually pass by my car too quickly..."shlup, shlup, shlup"...

I trace the outline of the mountain ahead with my eyes...

Wow! That lady driving next to me has some very outrageous hair...passing her now.

There's a speck in the sky up ahead, I wonder what it is...is it a bird, or a helicopter?....keep watching as it gets closer, I'm pretty sure its a helicopter, of course it could be one of those big red balls they sometimes put on power lines to let low flying planes know its there, but there are no power lines near by...pretty sure its a helicopter. I wonder if it's life flight or just a news helicopter? No news helicopters come up this way. Yep, its a little red helicopter. But I don't see any medical symbols, no red or blue cross. Must just be a personal helicopter...

"shlup, shlup, shlup" there are those white lines again, dissapearing from view at the side of my car.....

.... "- - - -" ...

Oh, my mind just went into drift mode again...I wonder how I got here? I don't remember driving for the past few minutes. Weird.

Uh oh. There's a cop behind me. I didn't see where he came from. Did he just come on to the freeway, or did he see me gonig too fast, and is now following me? How fast was I going? Don't know, but I'm ok now. I'll just move over into the center lane and see if he follows...

This is the through lane after all. The cop is in the passing lane, and the lane on my right is the exit lane. I can see why people would call the left-hand lane the "fast lane" and the right-hand lane the "slow lane"...so what is this lane? The "speed limit" lane? Cause I'm not going the speed limit...

Well, he hasn't moved over to get behind me, and he's catching up. Now passing. I guess I'm ok. That just scares me..

"shlup, shlup, shlup" goes the white lines.

Pretty colors on the mountains, the sun brings them out more.

There's the cop getting ready to turn around into the opposite moving traffic. Should keep my speed down still, he may just change his mind on the direction he's going...nope, its all good.

..."-----------".....

Oh mind drift again...I need to be careful of that or my car will just automatically take me home instead of the main office.

Jerk. Just cut me off then slow down. And I can't move over, 'cause there's a car in that lane. Come on, hurry up. I guess jerk was just in a hurry to exit...

Not much coming to my mind right now. Come on, think...No, you can't do it that way, it has to just come as it comes and if that means blank mind for a minute, so be it.....

Almost to the office...it's 4:21 they should still be there, of course it's Friday, and usually 4:30 is "closing time" for many people in the main office. I wonder how the parking will be. Hopefully there will be a space close to the side door. Oh, parking lot isn't that full, I'll just peek around the corner and see what the side parking looks like. Cool, there's a space.

At this point, my mind basically stops while I find the office I need, drop my stuff off, chat with a co-worker, and then head toward my car again... I feel very excited and anxious to get back out to my car so I can continue listening to the radio station I had been listening to, it was pretty fun...wait, that wasn't a radio station, that was my head. It was my own thoughts I was excited to get back to. How funny. That was almost as exciting to me as when I had been listening to the Harry Potter books on tape and couldn't wait to get driving again to listen to the story...

- Chel