Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Come Another Tide



Wednesday June 9th

Unfortunately it slipped my mind to post this on the actual day that it happened but, I knew I would eventually get around to it. I was given the task of driving my brother and his wife to the airport so they could take a weeks long vacation in Seattle. My situation was that I had to get off work at my job at 8pm drive about an hour to Athens, GA and wake up in the morning to get them to the airport by 10am, and be at work at 11:30am. So, I get off an hour early I arrive at 8pm. Hurray! An hour early. I get a fish burrito from Cali-n-Tito's in town and lay on the couch the rest of the night trying to get comfortable so I can go to sleep fast. To my dismay, they went to bed around 12 or 1 in the morning. I was expecting to wake up early to get them to the airport early so I can make it to work on time. I was a little aggravated.

I woke up at 5:30am. Fuck. I maybe got like 4 hours of good sleep if I was lucky. I was told the previous night we would leave at 7am so we would leave me plenty of time to get to airport and leave time to get ahead of rush hour traffic. I was led astray again and we would not be leaving until later. I am now angry on account I was doing them a favor by driving them on the airport that I did not have to do, that I was taking my own time and gas to do so they could go on a week long vacation to Washington. I went out on the porch and pouted on the porch like a little bitch and refused to eat breakfast. Whilst Iris was watering her plants I walked back in to exchange some altercate words with Nathan about how angry I was. I was a ignorant colossus of death and gloom, a pile of gun powder near a sparkler ready to ignite.

We leave at 7:40am or so and I fucking slam on the gas. We're doing 85-90mph down the Athens interstate to the I-85 South intersection to ATL. Not many words were exchanged on account I was in a 'fuck off' type of mood. As we merged into the interstate there it was. Rush hour. What an asshole. I made the mistake of not getting into the HOV lane which is reserved for folks that have two or more passengers in their vehicle. In other words the VIP lane where everything goes quicker but it's all the way to the left and the exits are on the right. I drove like Steve McQueen in Bullit so I could grace the concrete which was designated for automobiles containing numerous passengers. At this point I'm not even giving a shit about the clock I'm just set on getting to the airport. My foot was killing me from the stop and go bumper to bumper traffic, no sunglasses, no food on account of my stubbornness. Fuck life. Let a frozen pile of shit fall from an airplane onto my car and end it all.

Eventually we mingled past all the traffic and neared the exit for the airport. Anticipation rattled my body for we were actually here and I had never driven to the airport before. Wow. I gradually grew from Mr. Grump Grump to a little wiener dog yelping with delight that my owner was taking for a walk around the neighborhood. I instructed my brother to plug up my iPhone and to select the iPod. I put on Naughty By Nature's Feel Me Flow. A grin illustrated across my cheek and my brother let out a snort of air followed by a smirk that rivaled mine. And we began to trade words of old rap singles that were popular in the early nineties and trips to Gainesville, GA during that era to visit our cousins. The track This is How We Do It by Montell Jordan came up and I later downloaded the song in honor of Gainesville. I had not heard that track in years. I drove us to the North Terminal and idled the KIA so they could excavate their luggage from the clutter in my car and I apologized to my brother who plainly said it was OK I'm clearly over it now. I would return to this same spot in a weeks time to take them home.

I got back on the interstate, headed North to Habersham so I could go to work. I had plenty of time after all. The sun was still low in the sky and not very bright. Wasn't particularly hot or humid so I let the windows down so my hair could flap in the wind. My iPod was still plugged up but not playing anything through my speakers. What could unleash the excitement that I had just accomplished something I thought was a great highlight of my week. I pressed the play button on Torche. And rode all the way back to Habersham. Got to work with half an hour to spare. Before I passed Gainesville I decided to spit in times face and pull of to get Chic-fil-a. When I got to work I was given the offer to work half a day that day, go home and sleep, and finish the rest of my tour on a Saturday. Legendary!