There is something about driving new open roads that is so exhilarating. Maybe it’s the sense that you are leaving behind the past and racing through the present towards a completely unknown and exciting future or maybe it’s just the thrill of driving pretty fast with the windows down, singing along to some good songs at the top of your lungs as you’re looking over the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I don’t know, it’s very zen and very awesome at the same time.
Well, that was me in my Black Chevy Impala driving towards Pennsylvania, taking all sorts of backroads through the mountains and then 81 into PA, heck I even got to drive through West Virginia for a stint. Now this being me, I did get a little confused at the beginning of my trip where I miss read my hand written note and thought I had to go 3 POINT 7 miles up this road and really it said 38.7 miles. I went back and forth a few times before I really re-looked at my scribbled directions.
So after a few blissful hours of driving, I made my way to Phoenixville, PA, which is about 10 minutes from Valley Forge, you know Revolutionary War important. Anyway, the area is really beautiful, lots of trees, although I swear to god that there may have been some kind of crazy bug infenstation problem with the trees, because when I looked up into the trees, I kept seeing these like nests, that kind of looked like really thick spider webs or something that moths create, but huge and everywhere, and I felt/feel a little sick talking about it. Anyway, but you know Phoenixville's a nice town, low on franchises, high on trees.
This is what Teal Benevides (formerly Wisniewski) does.
Teal Benevides, MS, OTR/L, Thomas Jefferson University
"I will discuss current and past research on sensory integration for children with autism and our current research at Thomas Jefferson University."
And she teaches.
Teal and I go way back, like WAY back, er as back as I really go with current friends I still keep in touch with, note, I keep in touch with, because Teal, bless her heart, has a “I can’t seem to keep in touch with people” condition. I know a lot of people with this condition; bless all of their hearts. And you know, back in the day when I was younger, and less thoughtful, all of the people with this condition really erked me, but I understand it now, and I’m really cool with it, and I hope all you forgive me if I ever catch this bug.
So in this world that we live in, the mid to late twenties world, you know, really know who your old good friends are because when you hang out with them, it’s like you and them and nothing else, our worlds may have changed, we may have changed, but you are beyond all of that, you see straight to who they are, no bull shit, no fake outs, it’s just you and theem and everything is kind of funny or it's kind of sad.
Well, it’s this WAY with Teal, and it’s this way with Mike, Rachel, Michelle, Jorge, Corey, and it’s this way with most of the friends I have now (you know who you are). It’s like our bodies are just machines that protect and shelter our souls and when you see a great friend or family member, a doorway opens, and your real selves can walk out and say “Hey!” good to see you, isn’t all this other crap stupid.
So, Teal had a baby with Zach Benevides and her name is Ella. And Ella is really cool, uh, she eats a lot, and uh, she doesn’t cry too much, and she likes her rocker. Teal promoted the concept of “breast feeding” quite a bit while I was there. You know, it’s a natural thing, and it’s a cheap way of feeding the baby, and it doesn’t always work correctly, and all the “wow, I didn’t know that, would it be wrong of me to say that sounds kind of icky.” All I can say is, thank god for Lindsey having Elena and really desensitizing me to the whole baby thing or I might have been a little freaked out, but really I found it to be educational, not that I’m ever going to have to put a lot of this knowledge to work. Although, she really did open my eyes to alternative ways to give birth and the places you can go to have your child. She went to this special clinic/house place, that was nice and relaxing, and she got to hang out in like a jacuzzi or spa until she was ready to have the child, and then she did it more traditionally, but comfortable and on her own terms. If you can afford, the real trick you know, this sounds like a cool baby time option.
Regardless of all this, there is really something special about babies, I mean, they are just these little crying, eating, sleeping machines, but when you see the flare of personality, thought, life, it’s exciting and invigorating, it’s like being on the right there at the moment of some special project’s conception. Her whole life, the basis for everything will be laid by the groundwork of what her mom and dad will do in the next few years, er up to 15 years, but that’s like the first fifth of her life, and then she’s on her own, hopefully carrying with her all those important memories, events, and skills from childhood. Crazy. But it’s also cool to see a baby smile.
And thank you Zach. Thank you for watching all the behind the scenes features that my people’s make out here in Hollywood. You just never know if people really watch them. Well Zach does, and Zach is excited by all of those things, so you know, if I ever lose the fire to make these things, I’ll just think of Zach. I won’t let you down, Bro!
I spent the night there and woke up on a nearly deflated air mattress, just barely floating over the hard floor. I spent a little more time with Teal and Ella and then took off for Washington Reagan National Airport to drop my car off. And to make this leg a perfect Haiku, I got lost around the airport looking for a gas station to fill up the Impala’s tank. I mean, really how many of you have gotten screwed, because you forgot to return the rental without filling up the tank.
Mike was sitting at work wondering, “Where the hell is Will?” Well, Mike I was at a gas station, getting my debit card declined, because I used it in California, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania over the course of 4 days. Thank God for credit cards (did I really just write that?)
Mike and my M.O. when hanging out is to not plan anything and if we do something great, if not, great.
This time we had a nice Northern Virginia time. Hmmm… we went to the driving range, we got happy hour, we chilled out, we got coffee, and we talked. We talk about the year, about life, about what we want, and if we’ve gained anything since last we spoke, whether that’s wisdom or televisions. It’s also fun to see Mike interact with his girlfriend Jill. She’s really nice, but they are like polar opposites, just into most of the same stuff, except like many Americans, she has a television show dependency that is border line obsessive (which I guess we all are like.) Good luck Mike!
I also got to hang out with Mike’s roommate, this guy Michael, and he is a Washington D.C. police officer, and he has a very downcast sarcastic view on life, and he doesn’t particularly talk about women very nicely, but he was an interesting guy. Apparently, he believes that most officers in D.C. have been emasculated and are now basically public customer service operators. It was intriguing to hear his views on things and to know that he’s probably going to end up being an accountant.
This leg of the trip was nice and relaxing. It was the relaxing block of my trip. Thanks Mike!
At some point, I will extol the virtues of Happy Hour and Brunches in a blog, but just not this one. And seriously, Microsoft Word’s spell check does not have BLOG listed as a word. Nutz.
Oh yeah, I got to hang out with my Dad! We had our yearly business meeting. It was a good time, I got to get some stuff of my chest and so did he. Yeah, that whole thing about parent's and childhood and memories and stuff, yeah he was pretty absent, and he admits to never having thought about the child's emotional state when I was growing up. But in the end, you know all you can do is move on and try to forgive, because there ain't no going back. Although, I did want to smack him when he tried to project his money means everything including love thought process on me. I don't believe that and never have. Anyway, he’s hoping that we can do this more then once a year at some point, and I’m hoping that I don’t have to help my mom out financially ‘til the end. We’ll see.
So Pops is doing pretty good. He and the wifey thing are doing well and kicken it, they’re nearing retirement age and hopefully she can stay government employed until that time comes and she can get all the good retirement stuff. Oh, and my Dad’s brothers and sisters have confirmed it, he’s actually two years older then he thought he was, turns out that his Dad messed up the age on one of the forms, and in order to just keep things from getting sticky with the government, they just never changed it. I just keep telling him, think you’re sixty and you will be sixty, and it’s like you’ve got two more years to put into your life before retiring!
But truly, I’m sorry for the loss of two of my Dad’s close friends, who suffered some tragic endings. They were long time friends, life friends, work friends, all of the above. The 30/40-year friends. Those are the friends you can’t replace.
That’s the thing with your great friends, like I said earlier; it’s all funny, until it’s all sad.
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