I'm friends with someone named Mike in three of my classes. There's the sexy Mike in my Sociology assigned group. There's the Mike who I've worked with a couple times in my Forensic Science lab. And there's the adult Mike in my English class who seems to have taken an appreciation for me. Although I have had my share of inappropriate suiters, I don't think that's Mike's logic. I'm just a pretty girl and guys aren't supposed to be friends with girls they're supposed to want to have sex with them, so I jump to that conclusion easily.

In any case, I really didn't like him in the beginning, he was annoying. And then Amelia started liking him. Not sexually, she just found him very smart and interesting. And I think maybe he finds me smart and interesting. Cause I am. :) But he's talked to me a couple times in class and then today he was really going out of his way to make eye contact with me and talk to me directly. He pretty much had to lean around Amelia to see me every time and we watched Bernice Bobs Her Hair, so, naturally, Mike asked me if I was going to bob my hair, which I told him I am most definitely never going to do. And he said that he thought long hair made a better feminine statement than bobbing hair. And since Amelia likes him she's talked to him a little in class, but she walked out of the door in front of me and I didn't hear him say bye to her but when I passed him he said bye to me. Plus, our teacher is so sweet so she bought those little bags of already made popcorn, and when I went to sit in my desk, passing Mike and the popcorn bag, he gave me the one he'd taken out for himself, and he stuck his hand back in to grab his own.

My guess is as good as yours. But both of us do often share our opinions on the stories we analyze in class. And last class period I had my teacher read my rough draft of my report on a particular short story. He's doing the same short story and when I was telling the teacher about how much I'd enjoyed the writing of the author, he said it was interesting to hear me say that because he had the exact opposite opinion and he might have overheard what the teacher and I talked about. Because she liked my draft. Most people had hand-written half written drafts but mine was typed up and pretty much done. It didn't need any work. It was thorough, only supposed to be about two and a half pages with 12 font but mine was three and a half with 11 font. I added some quotes from the story which as a final report made it five pages with 11 font. But she said she didn't mind the length.

Anyway, so whatever it is that interests him about me, my guess is that it would be my intelligence that intrigues him. He does get intrigued by many things. And he did comment that in our text there's a sample report of a college student... who he said wrote beyond her age, he was impressed with the sample. And that's what my teacher said about my paper, she said, Well I didn't write like this in my freshman year of college. And they should remember that I'm 17, cause I announced it that one time.

So I think I'm going to take a different way home. Maybe change the way home each day. Cause for the past 30 times I've gone back and forth to school I've taken the exact same route. And frankly, I'm tired of being behind slow people, truly. I am absolutely obsessed with the speed of the people in front of me. I'm not laid back at all. And I grumble about everything. A bit of road rage. But let me paint the picture for you and you'll forgive me.

See, the first thing that prompts me to have a need for speed is the exhilaration of the acceleration. There's something about the speed that makes my soul soar. To be immobile, to not be able to walk very fast or to run and bike riding is work as well... and then to have a car that can take you to 80mph, respectively... it's amazing. It just makes you feel free. And there isn't a lot of traffic on the road I take. I pass someone going the opposite way every few minutes and the only time I'm near someone is when they're going 15 under the speed limit in a no passing zone, so I'm stuck. Otherwise we're usually distanced. And my car is noisy so when I press on the acceleration, you can hear it. You can hear the engine work, you can feel the speed. It's not like you're floating on a cloud, the way it is in nice cars, that have no sound and the like. So every time I speed up, going five, sometimes seven, and lately ten over the speed limit, I feel my soul go "yesssss."

Until I'm stuck behind a car. Who is going 15 under the speed limit in a no passing zone. My mom always passes people so she can go 70. Sometimes she even passes in the same no passing zones that take away my freedom at least three or four times a week. And I always gave her crap about it. I used to say, "well maybe they don't want to die today." But she said it wasn't her personality to go the speed of someone else, she liked to set her own pace, which is, of course, very fast. And I find that I completely agree. To be boxed in, staring at the behind of someone else taking their own sweet time, completely ignoring the fact that they're affecting someone else's life, that they're restraining someone else... it's tormenting. I get in my car to and from school and I can't wait to press on the acceleration and fly off. And I can't.

I swear at least three times a week I'm behind someone slow. The first section is okay because there are a lot of oppportunities to pass them. And I take those opportunities. But then there's Athens, which is 30mph for a few minutes... and someone always turns in in front of me and I'm screwed because from Athens to Catskill everybody goes 45. Sometimes 30 if they're really stupid. Sometimes 50, which in a 55 isn't excrutiating but is still disagreeable since I usually go 60. The problem is, there are some fiesty turns. And to be honest, you get up to 55 when it's straight and then you have make tight turns that are not comfortable unless you break to 45. You can still make it at 55, but it works your car. And if you're not in a hurry and you want to be kind to your car, I can understand that you'd want to go 45 around those corners. There are two main ones. And then it's fairly straight for a while although you go up and down hills. Which is the other problem.

See, if you go 55 and then you slow down to 45 around the corners, and then speed up to 55 between turns, and then go back down to 45 around the next turn, and then back to 55.... well, you fluctuate a lot. And directly after the first turn is a hill. So you're working your engine because you're going up hill AND you're trying to gain speed. There's almost no point. Why not just stay at 45? Unless you want to work your car every day, and I don't blame those who don't. I do, but, I'm cruel and unusual. But after those first two turns, honestly, it's not a problem to go 55. Especially on the way back because you're going down hill. I barely slow down at all. And I sometimes wonder if it's these peoples' first times. Do they not know the road, and what to expect? Do they not realize that it's okay to actually go the speed limit? I don't know. But it's only a few minutes and then the speed goes down to 40, because there are more houses.

It's almost funny, because these people are going 45 in the 55 and I'm mad, but then we get to 40 and we're already going the right speed. I'm happy that the speed changes because I won't go 50 in that 40mph zone. So I rarely have anything to worry about. Everybody goes the same speed as me. It's only that first half that really aggravates me to death. But to be honest, it's that box thing that really gets to me. When I'm driving home, and there's no one in front or behind me, I sometimes find myself going 50 in the 55mph zone. I'm relaxed and I'm cruising along. Just in the area before Athens. After Athens I do my acceleration because it's straight and free. But I find it comical when I glance down at my speedometer and find myself at 50, when I'm so often bitching about all the people in front of me going 50... However, I don't like to put others through what I'm put through. So I rarely go under the speed limit if someone is behind me. Not that it ever seems to be a problem. Cause everybody but me goes slow.

The other day I was going great and this asshole pulls out in front of me, which, at my speed, wouldn't have been a big deal to wait, I had to slow down after he pulled out. But not only that.... this asshole behind him pulls out too. It was rushed, believe me. And I was like MAN, it was going so good. This was around the area where you can pass but sort of in an awkward place where by the time you could pass it really wasn't worth it, but I also had a problem because it's difficult to pass two cars at once. These guys were butt buddies. They were both going like 5 under and I was just so mad.

Only every once in a while do I get someone who speeds off in front of me... going at least 65 in a 55. I don't try to keep up. That happened last week. I've probably got two people who sped ahead of me. In six or seven weeks. Shoot me.

To be honest, this isn't enough to stress me out. Up until driving alone I didn't care about the speed at all. I always went about two under or two over. But as soon as I got my license I started driving to school. And I'm always on a tight schedule. Nearly late. Especially on Mondays and Weds. But the past week I've been nearly late on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. So the first two weeks of school I was bound to be five minutes late and there are these assholes going 15 under in front of me and I'm like DUDE I HAVE TO GO. I leave at noon to go to school but my class doesn't start until 12:45. It takes an average of 20 minutes to get there. My mom gets there in about 15. I leave 25 minutes early because with the slow people lagging me and the five minutes it takes to park and walk to class - which I never had to do last semester because my parents always dropped me off at the front of the building. ,)

So, ordinarily, I might not even stress over these people. But I need to because I count on setting my own pace so that I can get to school on time. I know that even if I leave a few minutes late, I can make it if I go my speed. And then I can't. So I'm boxed in and forced to be late.

But still... leaving early as I try to and also on the way back home when I don't have a time limit... I shouldn't really obsess over these things as I do. I mean, I create these personalities each day. I talk to the behinds of these cars and their imaginary people. Not knowing what gender, age or race these people are. Often I imagine them to be about 60, white, female... cause they go slow, naturally. But I'm sure that most often it's not. And yet I give these people a sort of vibration, an identity for the purposes of my conversation with them. And then I talk to them. When they go under the speed limit but they're pulling something I say, "well, I understand" out loud. And when they do something stupid or cross the line when they turn or whatnot, I make various comments of disappointment and aggravation. I'm always talking to them, analyzing their driving, obsessing.

But honestly, that's because of my car situation. Firstly, I've never driven alone up until school started. I didn't have my license so every single time I drove I had someone to at least talk to, or notice. It's almost like I didn't pay very much attention to the external world because I was always hyper-aware of the internal world, inside the car. That's why I drive so badly when I'm with Amelia. I'm always concentrating so hard on talking to her about things that I'm pretty much driving blindly, not actively paying attention to very much at all. It's very ditsy of me.

So, I mean, you see what I mean... I'm bored. I have no one to talk to. I talk to myself, of course. But I'm forced to talk to the other people, who for so very many reasons, stick out to me in the first place. AND if you still don't think I've got good reason to obsess over them... you also have to understand that I have no music. My radio works but most of the stations are fuzzy except these two positively horrific stations for oldies that have no a single awesome oldies. Oldies but goodies? I don't think so, not on these two stations. All the others are fuzzy. Plus, I have no tape player. So I can't listen to books on tape or les miserables, nor can I plug in an ipod or a discman so that I can listen to cds or mp3s or ANYTHING. The absolute only choice I have is to plug my own stereo into the cigarette burner thing. Which can be done but then the sound comes out of the small stereo instead of the car stereo and then I can't put my books there like I usually do, and then I have to leave a stereo in my car to provoke someone to break into it and steal it. Even though I lock my doors.

So I mean. What choice do I have?

So back to my first line. I think I'm going to take a new route home. I'm sick of the same old scenes. So drab. Getting draber from fall and soon winter. Ugly as hell. Boring as hell. And stressful too. So I originally thought I only had two choices. To go on 385 but that takes me through Athens at 30mph. Or go through Coxsackie at 30mph and then on 9W. It leads me to the bridge all the same, even though I have to trace myself backwards, which will take up time. And I figured since I have to go through a town on each route, it still sucks. So I haven't done that. Although it just barely occurred to me that on the way home I can take 9W because I'm not pressed for time and I know that if I go straight instead of turn to go on 385, the road will later give me a place to turn to go to 9W.

Ha. Today I did that and when it said Coxsackie Next Left, I didn't turn. It was brilliant. It's just that when the turn came up it said Albany. But that's because you go through Coxsackie to get to Albany. So next time I'll take that. This time I just took the Catskill exit and turned around and headed on 9W home, like I do when I go to Walmart after school. Which, you see, is what I thought I had to do, originally. I thought that to go to school from 9W that I would have to go through Catskill which is really an extra ten minutes out of my way. But then I realized that I could take another road to the bridge.

But then as I was going home today on 9W I realized that there were several turns that would lead me on the back roads to Coxsackie. They're unmarked roads so we're pretty much free and there are very few people who go on them. They're back roads, afterall. And that bypasses Coxsackie because I'm right on the road that comes out of these back roads. There are two ways, I don't know which one to take because last time I went I got lost lol, but I know the way Amelia goes... so maybe I should take that way. That comes out on 9W, then I can find the road that takes me to the bridge instead of through Catskill and that will be one fine way to go. And if I get bored of that, there's always the second road. Then I won't have to go through any of the towns with their boring village speed limits.

So maybe today when I go back for my 6pm class, I can take some of these snazzy roads instead of the same old thing. I have to time it and adjust when I leave if it takes slower time. It's likely to. I've found that no matter the speed, even 15 under, to go straight will always get you there faster than to go around at a faster speed. I've tried and failed.

Anyway, I could babble on but we'll leave it at that because I'm going to go feed Isis and get some food for myself before I go back to class.