You know you need a Snickers… when you start arguing with the GPS…

The drive is long, longer than its been before. What starts out as a lovely drive past the fields of sheep as the sun goes down, soon turns into a shouting match with the GPS woman. “Quit telling me what to do, I get it!” The night’s darkness closes me in like tunnel vision and I just drive, in hopes I reach my destination. Both cats, once adorably cuddled on my lap, now add to the growing discomfort. One tiny, bony elbow jabbing into my forearm, and the circulation slowly being cut off from my driving foot. Hashtag: Thank God for Cruise. 

I reflect on the eerie quietness of the back seat, hoping to goodness the tortoises are still alive. A flash of a memory crosses my mind. Looking into the tank of my college days pets, to find one hermit crab embracing the other. And as I drew closer, to my horror, finding it was actually eating the other, wrapped around it, one claw shoveling brain matter into its greedy maw, like movie goers shoveling popcorn into their mouths… I dare not turn around, and trust my tortoises aren’t that hungry… Oh God, must drive faster…

I occupy my brain with the qued up episodes of the podcast Lore. Lulled by the conversational, slightly monotonous tone of the host. Each short episode exciting me more. Where does one find a guy like this? Hes definitely my kind of geek. His subject matter ranging from ghost stories, to serial killers, to witches, to Irish folktales, told from the perspective of a storyteller. I love it. I get it. I’m hooked…

Until my GPS rudely interrupts his lovely, lulling words, to tell me to keep going on this route…

I feel like I’m stuck in a wormhole. Balancing between pain and pleasure. My eyes want to dip, maybe from monotony, maybe from fatigue, maybe from the steady onslaught of oncoming headlights… but my body is still alive. And there’s miles to go before I sleep…

The drive was long, longer than its been before. But in the end, I made it.