ROADTRIP!

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but I've been putting it off because I knew it was going to be one of those really long posts (entertaining, but long). Anyway, before I start forgetting details, I thought I might as well get down to it now.

How did you spend your Friday the 13th? Mine was spent in a car driving to Toronto and back.

First, a little back story: On Thursday, it was looking like Claudia might miss the Fedex deadline to send a very important package down to Toronto. As she mentioned that she may have to drive the thing down herself, I pipped in with: "Well, if you need someone to go with you, I'll go." I knew it would be an overnight trip and, since my insomnia had been taking away a large chunk of my sleep time anyway, might as well do something productive.

Some very sensible people I know have told me that this was a crazy move on my part, but I didn't see it that way.

You see, sometimes I feel like I'm a very predictable person. I like routines and plans and knowing what I'm going to be doing the next day, the next month, the next minute so that I may better prepare myself. But since my life can no longer follow a certain routine, I figured why not jump in with both feet and enjoy the ride? Why worry about what's going to happen next when you can't control it? I've got to learn to fly by the seat of my pants. I want to try new things. I want to think about something and just do it (the Nikean approach to life).

That's why a last minute, late-night trip to Toronto seemed like the ideal way to engage in my newfound spontaneity. And boy, was it ever a late-night.

Claudia arrived at my house at around 1am (don't ask). She had forgotten her wallet at her new home and we had to drive to the West end to pick it up. Since we're going to Toronto, you'd think that was on the way. However, since we still needed to make three copies of the package, we had to find some sort of 24 hour copy centre. I vaguely recalled something about the Staples at South Keys from my days doing student-body elections. And what do you know, it does exist!

We get there at around 1:30am and I guess lots of people need to make photocopies in the wee hours of the morning because they had about 10 people on staff. It would take about a half-hour for the copies to be done, so we head over to the 24 hour Denny's. I start thinking about how we need more "Open 24 hours" places in town. I think there's even a Goodlife gym that's open all night. I should look into that.

Anyway, at 2:30am, we get our packages and we're off.

It's now 3am, and we're barely out on the 416 when Claudia starts to fall asleep. We pull over and I get into the driver's seat.

There's a weird noise coming from the vehicle and I almost want to wake Claudia to ask her what it is. My imagination starts to run wild. After all, it is Friday the 13th. Maybe some escaped convict from a local prison was lurking around when we switched driver's and the noise is the sound of his broken hook banging against the door....

I turn the radio up.

For a good half hour or so I've got The BEAR to keep me company with some awesome music (Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, G&R - commercial free it seems since it's so late at night) but all that comes to a screeching halt when I hear Nickleback.

I hate Chad Kroeger. I hate him so much that I switch the channel over MAGIC 100 and the John Tesh show. That's right Chad, I hate your fugly face so much, I'd rather not have to think about it and listen to the dulcet tones of John Tesh's voice.

And John Tesh is good to me. He plays me some James Blunt. It's almost 4am and James and I are singing a duet where we tell each other how beautiful we are. Please picture this scene if you will: A dark, deserted highway. Me sitting in the driver's seat of a blue Chevy Aveo, crooning and swaying my little heart out to the steering wheel. Then, just as we reach the part in the song where it goes "You're beautiful/it's true," a well-timed snore erupts from next to me (she's gonna kill me for writting about that one :p) Right. Claudia's still in the car.

At around 4:30am, we're passing Kingston and we switch driver's again. From 4:30 to 6 everything is a bit of a blur. Although I do remember being in a McD's parking lot and seeing snow(!) on other vehicles. Oh! and Claudia telling me that since the guy washing the floor didn't put up one of those Wet Floor signs in front of the bathroom, we should slip and sue.

We make it into Toronto right on time for morning rush hour.

While downtown, we drive by some movie trucks. We toy with a revenge fantasy of showing up on set as extras and doing every single annoying pet peeve we've ever had to endure. But, there's still a job to be done, so we move on.

During the drive, the laptop battery died on us leaving one of the DVDs we're suppose to deliver trapped inside. For some reason, the outlets at the coffee shop weren't working. And the people at Subway denied having an outlets (oh ya? then how are you able to toast that bread, asshole). Finally, we pull into a gas station and realize that there is an outlet on the outside of the building. So here we are in the parking lot of a local Shell with the door wide open and a cord dangling out of the vehicle. But dammit, we got that DVD back.

It's now 11am and all the packages have been safely delivered (in Fedex enveloppes no less, since Staples wouldn't sell us any real enveloppes and these ones were up for grabs). We get on the higway and begin to make our way back.

It was a very uneventful, but picturesque drive; kind of like driving inside a postcard with all the colours around us. We were back in Ottawa at around 4:30pm; just in time for the afternoon rush hour, a little tired, but all in one piece (I mention that cuz my mom worries... a lot)

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I spent my Friday the 13th.