I recently when on a road trip<\/p>\n
and boy,<\/p>\n
don’t they always sound better on paper?<\/p>\n
I didn’t realize that I can get<\/p>\n
claustrophobic<\/p>\n
until I was strapped in and 150<\/p>\n
miles away from home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We drove through towns that I will<\/p>\n
never live in,<\/p>\n
past people who live in a completely<\/p>\n
different reality than I do<\/p>\n
even though we are only<\/p>\n
2 hours apart.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seeing how big the world is makes me<\/p>\n
feel so stuck<\/p>\n
and comfortable in my hometown<\/p>\n
I don’t have to worry about getting lost.<\/p>\n
Well,<\/p>\n
physically lost at least.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stopping for gas<\/p>\n
like finally and desperately reaching<\/p>\n
an oasis.<\/p>\n
Legs are wobbly,<\/p>\n
head pounding,<\/p>\n
pacing in between unfamiliar but familiar<\/p>\n
gas pumps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Smile to the cashier you will never see again,<\/p>\n
recognize that to them, you are just<\/p>\n
a blip in their workday<\/p>\n
they don’t get paid enough to care about the<\/p>\n
cracks forming in your sense of time and space<\/p>\n
and self.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Snacks that will remain uneaten roll<\/p>\n
and crunch under my feet,<\/p>\n
how long has that ache in my back been there?<\/p>\n
God, I am getting old.<\/p>\n
We are 3 hours away.<\/p>\n
3.<\/p>\n
3.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Up the stairs, down the hall,<\/p>\n
through the door.<\/p>\n
To the bathroom.<\/p>\n
Back down the hall,<\/p>\n
into the room,<\/p>\n
that unfamiliar room.<\/p>\n
A large window,<\/p>\n
the sound of the city underneath.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
New city,<\/p>\n
new life.<\/p>\n
Unfamiliar,<\/p>\n
straining to familiarize quickly,<\/p>\n
learn the streets and the trees,<\/p>\n
quick,<\/p>\n
before my brain realizes that I can’t do this.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Down the street a tire shop,<\/p>\n
advertising “cheap”<\/p>\n
where I would rephrase “affordable.”<\/p>\n
Mexican polka music.<\/p>\n
Bagel shop.<\/p>\n
The ceiling in our bathroom is leaking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And I ….<\/p>\n
and I ….<\/p>\n
And I-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently when on a road trip and boy, don’t they always sound better on paper? I didn’t realize that I can get claustrophobic until I was strapped in and 150 miles away from home. We drove through towns that I will never live…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92096,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91862\/revisions\/92096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}