Wait! That’s My Exit!

I was cruising down the interstate early Saturday morning on my way to meet up with two friends for the trip to Richmond to VSRA’s Leadership Team meeting.  It was a beautiful morning.  The sun was rising and it looked like it was going to be a perfect spring day.  I was excited because Saturday’s meeting was my first as a committee member and I eagerly anticipated connecting with other educators from all over the state and increasing my involvement with the state reading council.

My friends, who are the co-presidents for our local reading council and also attend the Leadership Team meetings, invited me to ride along with them and we had chosen a central location to meet.  The place we had chosen was very familiar to me and was only about a thirty minute drive from my house, so I knew exactly where I was going.  I stopped at McDonald’s for a biscuit and iced tea, and as I drove, I thought about many things, from the upcoming week at school, to a presentation that I’ve been working on for a conference this summer.  Then, I started thinking about writing.  I’d had a tough writing week and had battled writer’s block for several painful days.  My drive provided me with the perfect opportunity to reflect on those experiences with writer’s block and to flesh out some ideas that had not yet developed into anything concrete.  The ideas were bouncing around in my head and I was so busy thinking, that I didn’t realize just how far I had traveled.  Suddenly, I looked up and realized that the exit I needed to take was in my rearview mirror!

Luckily, my inattention to the exit wasn’t a huge problem.  About two miles down the road, there was a second exit that I could also take.  While this exit was a little out of the way, it wouldn’t take me too far from my destination.  As I flipped on my blinker, I laughed at myself.  Then, I remembered the old Jeff Foxworthy “You might be a redneck if…” jokes that used to be so popular and decided that this was an example of a “you might be a writer if…” joke.  Maybe my joke could be something like, “you know you’re a writer when you’re so busy thinking about your writing projects that you miss your exit on the interstate!” Well, maybe not.  That’s sounds kind of silly when I say that out loud.  Maybe I should just skip the jokes:)

Anyway, at least I had a funny story to tell my friends when I (finally) arrived at the mall parking lot!