I woke up on Wednesday morning with an adorable French man laying in my bed. We hadn’t had sex, we didn’t even kiss. Why was he in my bed? I felt awkward and didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. I texted Jac immediately, “how do I get him to leave?” and soon enough, my phone rang and Jac was on the line, “Hey! I’m on my way over to finish the edits for the video!” I played along and he was gone.
Jac and I giggled about it over brunch, and under the laughter I could feel the familiar urge to escape creeping up on me. It was Wednesday, Jac’s day off, and I tend to be really good at leaving most situations when they no longer make me happy. I’m not quite sure if that’s a good quality of mine, but that was none of my concern. The city wasn’t making me happy and I wanted to leave.
Next thing we know, we’re in my car, stuck in traffic in the Bronx, and I had to pee. I’m staring at the empty plastic cup from our iced coffee, remembering the time me and my dad were stuck in traffic on our way back from the Outer Banks and he made me go into the backseat so he could pee in a water bottle. Traffic wasn’t moving. I tell Jac I’m sorry for having to do this so early in our friendship, but I can’t hold it. I take the plastic cup into my backseat and let it go, crouched and trying to control myself as to not overflow or spill anywhere. Jac is laughing hysterically at the wheel, “two chicks one cup!” and I can’t help but laugh and simultaneously beg her to stop joking so I won’t make a mess. One cup is full, and I toss it out the window as I start my next round. It felt good, it felt really good.
It took us about two and a half hours to finally start moving again. We didn’t know where exactly we were going but we start heading in the direction of a place where Jac had once been upstate. We agreed that we didn’t want to come back to the city that night, and if anything, we had my car to sleep in. I was people watching while Jac continued to drive and spotted a man laughing. His smile reminded me of an old friend, Derek, and I instantly remembered that he had a beautiful home upstate. I contacted him and he was ecstatic to have us. But first, we wanted to find a body of water to watch the sunset and take a swim at dusk.
Once the sun started to set, we pulled off at a random exit and jumped in the water nearby. The light was perfect, and we were alone. Once dusk hit, we walked around the eerie neighborhood. Jac stopped me and pointed to the bushes. “Are those fireflies!?!” I was confused, of course they were fireflies, “I’ve never seen a firefly before!” I ran into the field to catch one for her. Something that had been such a normal recurrence for me was something she had never once experienced. We were in bliss.
Night hit and we were back on the road. Another hour and a half to Derek’s home. We took the back roads, through the small towns, brights on, spotting deer and swerving around road kill. We made it to Derek’s by midnight, but he wasn’t home yet. Exhausted, we settled in and fell straight asleep only to wake to Derek coming home a few hours later. I jumped on him in my sleepy state, gave him a huge kiss, thanked him, and went straight back to sleep.
In the morning, Jac and I turned to one another in total amazement. “Where the hell are we? How did we get here? Let’s not go back today.” And so we stayed. We cooked breakfast, we explored town, we borrowed bikes and photographed the beauty that surrounded us, we ate, we laughed, we talked about outer space and danced to cheesey music.
We were reminded of the magic outside the city. And sometimes, if we let it, it’s so much more exciting and inspiring than what we normally hold so high. Something that costs nothing, that requires no altered states, that reminds you; you are just as much a part of it as it is part of you. We were reminded. Be spontaneous, take chances, explore.