nyj75: missing the grease after all


Tonight my roommate and I swapped car stories. Although we both like healthy food and our glasses of wine, we couldn't have more opposite approaches to cars. She'd own a nice black Mercedes with leather seats, I dream of an apple green Volvo with stick-shift, plaid seats and good stereo. She hated everything having to do with maintenance, while I still boast about changing my brakes, oil, and other fluids. As I told her, I'm into things that guys like — beer, classic rock and car repairs — just not in a tomboy way. Something about the bonding it made for with guy friends, I guess.

And hearing a favorite Allman Brothers song tonight — "Ain't Wasting Time No More," that life came back to me. Times like this, I miss it: the warmth of an autumn evening in Tempe, the space of the suburbs, and sprawling out on my friend's driveway to fix the Eunuch (aka, my death-trap Geo). It wasn't an exciting life, but man it had its moments.

I spose I'll someday think the same of this life — missing, perhaps, the glorious sunlight of my bedroom in the morning, or those days of making cell phone calls on the fire escape to snag what fragile signal I could find. I might miss the warm red brick of the wall in the living room, or laugh about the photo shoots shot and attempted in this tiny, snug Park Slope shoe box.

I wonder: are such moments of contentment the vast majority or just glancing rays of joy we too often sleep through because of working till 8 a.m. again?

posted @ 10:21 PM on Mon - April 10, 2006 remark! Email |  as quoted:
before I said ...  but more recently: 

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