Home and Home
Folks,
Wine here. So, hey, it’s been a little bit hasn’t it? The past few weeks have been crammed full of things as Whiskey so plainly put out there, but I assure you we’ve (or at least I’ve) been up to some sober activities as well! Yes, Halloween was a hoot as was our night being incredibly close to one of my favorite bands of all time, The Sounds (insert a slight school boy squeal)! But, the bit I want to focus on for this post would be my trip back to Columbus, my first home to drop off my faithful stead to roam through slower and better paved pastures around those suburban streets.
It’s been a sad time for beloved car lately. About two weeks ago I bee bop down our stoop on my way to work for a lovely Wednesday morning with the grad students when I notice a pool of shattered glass by the driver’s side door and notice as I get closer that my window had been smashed in! Naturally I check inside to see if anything is taken but no…everything is in the exact same place as it was. Well except for my window which was now located on the driver’s seat, the floor, on the street and pretty much everywhere else in a 4 ft radius. Now I’ve already painted this picture that I have a stressful job that really doesn’t give me too much time to myself outside of those two glorious days off where I get to recharge so I decided along with my mother’s guidance to just wait it out and drive the car home sans window…Fast forward a week and a half later and I embark on quite possibly the most epic road trip I’ve experienced in that car which is actually saying a lot considering the amount of death defying journey’s through mountains I’ve navigated safely through with my go-kart. Well the trip was filled with odd smells throughout the not-so-great state of Indiana and forced me to resort to using my big headphones as earmuffs because there really is a reason why people don’t drive with their windows down in November. I made it back safely and was only just barely run off the road by a semi once, so I would consider this a successful ride.
I had only four goals during my short short stay in Columbus: 1) See family 2) Get coffee from Stauf’s 3) Turn car over 4) Not miss my flight home. Anything else was considered bonus points, so thankfully I was able to see some Columbus friends but not nearly as many as I hoped to see and managed to get a bit of sleep in the process. Now I’d love to go on some sort of introspective rant as to how it felt to come home after becoming acquainted and essentially starting a new life up here in Chicago but either I’ve gotten over wanting to do that or I just wasn’t there long enough for it all to sink in. I guess it was kind of surreal to be back but honestly it’s just Columbus, Ohio…it’s not really a city that’s synonymous with profound. Rather I guess the absence of feeling should reflect well on my, either getting over, or packing up and shipping to Chicago, issues I had yet to work out. Or, like I said all of that trite dribble doesn’t bear the same weight in my consciousness anymore after listening to people with issues I couldn’t even imagine having to live with. Whatever the case may be, it was still a good time in the Buckeye state and hopefully I get to go back soon but as it stands now I probably won’t be back until 2010. I’m going to really miss driving that car though. We had some fun whipping around those familiar roads one last time, mainly showing off for all of the other mid-size luxury cars what we had learned surviving the commute on Lake Shore Dr. over the past three months, or what it really meant to parallel park. I don’t know why but that last little bit of reflection almost got me to tear up! And about a car nonetheless! I may be moving on past introspective ruminations about seemingly mundane events but I will always be a sentimental guy at heart.
-Wine
