the mazda

this past fall i was driving home from boston. i'd stopped in dubois to drop my cousin off who'd taken the trip with me. i was on my way home on 80, about to exit to get on to 28, and my car hit its 100,000 mile. i was glad my 100,000 mile was on a road i knew so well and had driven so many times. i thought about who i'd be had i not spent countless hours as a child in a car driving with my headphones on looking out the window. drives to dubois, a lot of drives to central pennyslvania. drives to maine, drives to montreal, to gettysburg, to prince edward island. there were drives in wyoming, arizona, california, texas and washington and oregon.

there was a boy at summer camp who was older than me. he was really hot - we all had crushes on him. we took this class called "music appreciation" - we mostly just played our favorite songs. he put on a bob dylan song once and said that sometimes when he was stressed out, or upset, he'd just put on dylan and drive through the hills of fox chapel for hours with the windows down. i thought he was the coolest. so when i finally was able to drive, i decided to do what i could to be just like him.

so i thought about the mazda. we got it in highschool and it was mine after i graduated college. i drove around fox chapel a lot - i'd get in a lot of trouble for wasting gas doing it - i'd listen to nick drake, not bob dylan.