Savoring the Road

I’m on the bus now, visiting my friend Sheree who lives about 3-4 hours away.  I love the road and the impending thrill of the new adventure that awaits. I feel differently already, ready to take on new challenges, new people, new experiences.  I’ve traveled a lot for conferences and I find that the adventure begins the minute you step into the Uber or the cab ride to the airport, train or bus. 

I love shedding the normalcy of my routine.  I enjoy hotel rooms and new restaurants.  I’m wondering if the desire to break routines is a result of being a teacher for so many years.  You know exactly what you’re doing at 11:34 A.M every day.  There’s a rhythm to the days and how the year flows. Oftentimes it is just too regimented.  But when you travel, it’s all up for grabs. 

I don’t know what Sheree and I will be doing later today.  She has a hotel reservation for me across from her apartment building. I imagine we’ll go for a lovely dinner, have wine, and catch up on each other’s lives.  It’s been a few months since we’ve connected. We lead very different lives, but we’ve stayed in touch since college.  We met in a Shakespeare class where the professor insisted we carry a tremendous Riverside Shakespeare anthology with us to class each day.  Sheree turned to me and offered to carry it Mondays and Wednesdays, if I’d lug it Tuesdays and Thursdays.  And from that moment on, we became friends, and at times, best friends.

I’m about an hour away, writing in real time, and savoring the road and the promise of newness.