November 10, Memories

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What? You didn't know I was a drummer?  Bonnaroo 2010
Today I drove to my parents house (roughly 45 minutes away) to claim our little fish.  We are having some beautiful, very un-season like, sunny sky weather.  The kind of weather that had me roll my window down and let my hair get wind-whipped and frizzy.  Alone with my thoughts and the radio, I drove the streets in my hometown as I had numerous times before.  My mind tried to revert back in time, as if I had just finished up a day of class and was heading "home."

My car glided into the same parking spot it did when I lived there.  Only now when I walk in, there is my little guy, waiting for his Momma.  I stepped in to my room and breathed in the same scent, touched my bedspread, and looked at the items on my dresser, left exactly like they were when I moved out over two years ago.  For some reason I never packed up everything in my room, I simply just walked out and created a new life in the next town over.  Stepping back into my room, into my old home, driving through my old city, floods me with memories.  I miss the nights of playing cards with my mom until I would force myself to go to bed so I wouldn't be cranky in the morning.  So many good memories in the white house with black shutters.

Once little man was loaded in the car, he instantly fell asleep.  I guess his Nana and Papaw wore him out!  I popped in a mystery Cd from my console and instantly was transported to my life in Wyoming.  David Gray singing "Babylon" took me to many weekends I drove into town to go skiing.  I would sing along and envision the turns I would be cutting into the side of the mountain within the next few minutes.  The next song, "Tiny Dancer" reminded me of another time a group of us were driving into town, "Tiny Dancer" came on the radio, and we all broke in to song, as if we had been waiting for that exact song to come on.

One song led to another and before I knew it I was pulling into my drive.  In 45 minutes, I mentally took a trip to Ireland, to Jackson Hole, thought of friends I hadn't thought of in years, and smiled that goofy smile you get when you think no one is watching.  I thought about driving past our house, letting Paisley finish his nap, and letting my mind continue to drift through the different chapters of my life.  Instead I pulled in to my drive and reunited P with the toys I know he missed over the past 24 hours.

For the life I've lived and the life that is left in me, for the memories that fill my mind like the words on a page....I give thanks (and a smile).

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