PHOBIAS

Have you seen the Gwen Stefani, Akon video "Sweet Escape"?
There's a moment when they are driving on the road and Gwen sticks her arm out the window to do the window wave.
You know, when the wind catches the wave of your arm and depending on how fast the car is going, your arm can really get going.

I have memories of this from my childhood because every vacation we took was a road trip.

When I was 10 years old we drove in my dads creme colored Pontiac station wagon. All the way from Texas to Pompano Beach, Florida.



Great memories and then..some...not so much.

I remember sitting in the middle and my grandma fell asleep next to me with her leg over mine. Just long enough to lose complete feeling of my leg. My aunt (sitting on the other side of me, silently laughing HYSTERICALLY.) I didn't dare wake her up.

I remember going through Alabama, and seeing a tremendous amount of Ku Klux Klan on every corner, in their white gear, holding signs. I remember having such a tremendous amount of fear running through my veins. I remember laying on the floor board of the station wagon, praying that they wouldn't see me. As if they were going to look past my parents, brothers, aunt and grandma just to seek me out. Remember I was 10.

I remember crossing the Florida state line and stopping at the visitor center for bathrooms and being amazed at the fact that they had FREE freshly squeezed orange juice. YUM-O


I remember being there specifically to attend the Texas Rangers spring training. My parents were friends with quite a few of them and their wives. I remember my older brother getting to meet his favorite player Reggie Jackson and how cool that was for him.

I remember my dad driving towards a bridge and saying, "I can make it" only to discover along with a few other cars, that we weren't going to make it. We were stuck in the middle of a bridge as it was opening for a boat to pass. Although once it started to open we were at the top, going higher and higher. We couldn't reverse because there were cars behind us. It was a nightmare.



CUT to my HUGE phobia of bridges.

Now at the beginning of March I am driving to Michigan to see some girlfriends. I am making the drive alone, and thought how it would be so nice to just do this on my own. "I know I can do this" Then it hit me...I have to drive across this bridge...by myself!!!



Not just once but twice...I'll have to do it again to get back home.
This will be an experience. I am trying not to psych myself out here. I am just going to pray for NO WIND...Maybe I will video tape the entire thing and YOUTUBE it. I have only been on this bridge once and Movin Dad was driving. I am sure that I was probably flat on the floor board the entire time.

I was raised on road trips and I know..."I can do this!"