Road Rage Barbie

Ok, deep breath…

I am about to admit to you all something that is difficult for me to say out loud. Why I chose now to do so, who knows, but alas, here I am after a tedious morning commute sitting gingerly at my desk, where I should be doing work....yet I feel I should be confessing. Yes, feel free to don your best Priestly attire...I, my friends, have road rage.

Phew, what a relief to get that out in the open!

Now it’s not like the typical angry man you see on the news who will get out of his car and beat someone on the side of the road kind of road rage no, but I somehow turn into Road Rage Barbie behind the wheel of my car and I have no idea how this transition happens exactly.

Its a scary metamorphosis really. Like my Ford Focus becomes some sort of super alien pod that sucks me into a new and unusual personality and I am instantly a more aggressive and angrier person. Speeding and swerving and swearing like a sailor.

Now I get it, I live in a city. Well, I work there at least. And they say that Boston drivers are some of the worst most offensive drivers in the country. And I guess the best defense is to have the best offense right? Right?!

Well this got me thinking this morning. Yes thing morning, as I cruised in and out of lanes, bobbing and weaving like a boxer, listening to Bittersweet Symphony and thinking of that late 90's video, the lead singer much like myself in my Focus, pushing his way where he needed to go, not caring who was in his way, clad in leather, cool and collected....

Ok so I wasn't cool and collected, I was yelling to myself at the idiot in front of me on the highway who decided the brakes were as good as the gas. I was also not wearing a snazzy leather jacket but you get the point...

I was thinking about the whole offense being a good defense and how I think I have transferred my road rage into my real life.

Have I become so adjusted to making my way, to making sure I get where I am going and not getting hurt that have become so focused that I have the mindset of being that guarded? Am I like a traffic lane, in my head? Not letting anyone else in for fear it may cut me off? Cause an accident? Derail me?

I know I know, the metaphors are killing you. But have I become so callous and jaded that I too have become a Bittersweet Symphony?

I know the road has been rough, bumpy and well, downright full of dead ends a lot of the time. I think I need a new map. Screw maps actually. I have a GPS with the voice of Darth Vader!! I should be able to find my way out of the Dark Side no problem shouldn’t I?

Maybe there's hope for me yet.

National Friendship Day? Are you kidding?

So apparently yesterday was National Friendship Day. A day proclaimed by Congress in 1935 to honor the importance of these relationships.

Seriously?

The first Sunday in August is a documented holiday to celebrate friendship. SO clearly you are off the hook for the rest of the year. Much like with birthday's and anniversary's, where the rest of the year can go by you only need one calendar day to pay attention to.

Unless of course, like me, you are named after a month. Then you get attention for an entire month, and along with it pointless jokes. "It's not April, it's June", "If you were born in September would your name have been September", or old men singing "April in Paris".

But I digress.

Its sad to me really, that they created a specific day for you to celebrate friendships. To me a friendship should be cherished daily, but then again, over the years I have noticed the changes that friendships have taken.

Those late night gossiping phone calls disappear. The frequency of all conversations generally cease. Sometimes the phone doesn't ring for days.

Oh sure some are still there, but not there anymore. It changes, its different. It morphs into this pseudo adult persona that we call a friendship still, but to me generally feels lacking a lot of the time.

There are spouses now, and children sure. And jobs, careers even. Things that take precedence over what was once an elementary school chum. Those friends who saw you through your first bad perm, your first zit, break-up, training bra.

You were in their weddings, at the births of their children. Yet still, as you grow older, some times the distance grow greater. There are some that are immune to this fate sure, and they are few and far between I can assure you. Those lucky enough to have those friends, THOSE are the people who should celebrate this holiday.

The friends that drop everything, even for a moment, to cheer you up on a bad day. Talk you down from those emotional ledges, even if they may not think you need to be on them. To hold your hair back when you throw up, whether its from chemotherapy or the cocktail flu.

The ones who no matter what, will leave their kids with a babysitter to sit with you in a hospital all night. The ones who put even your family first. THOSE are the ones who deserve this holiday.

Not those superficial ones who send you a Christmas card every year just to get one back. Not the ones who you grew apart from, even if you still remember the "good ole' days" fondly. The ones who you know secretly look down on you. Who disapprove of the choices you made in your life.

So what if you had a child out of wedlock. So what if you are a single mom living paycheck-to-paycheck. So what if you made bad decisions. You learned your lessons and you are a better person for them, a better friend. You learned to stand on your own to feet, learned to get back up when knocked down. And learned what a real friend looks like.

Learned who really deserves a holiday.