Florida Chick Rides Again

I am a huge control freak... so much so that I regularly dream about losing my teeth - because I have this dream almost weekly, I looked it up - apparently people who dream about losing their teeth have a fear of losing control - and I dream this A LOT. One of the main ways that this control issue comes out is through driving - I hate to be a passenger unless I'm driving with Chris or my dad, other than that, I like to be in the driver's seat. The first time that Monica and I drove to Florida from Michigan, I refused to let her drive any of the 28 hours and ended up with giant, swollen ankles by the time we arrived. On the way back to Michigan, I let her drive for about half an hour because my contacts were bothering me - but I had a panic attack as we were winding through the mountains around Nashville, so I made her find a hotel for the night.

This weekend I was forced to put myself in the passenger seat on a roadtrip once again. I drove up to Jacksonville for a cheerleading competition, and everything went smoothly...and,much to my passenger's delight, I even went 5 above the speed limit and made it there in 6 hours instead of 7 like the last time we went. I still refused to take one hand off of the wheel at any time or raise the volume on the radio above a whisper, but all in all the trip went well and we all arrived safely.

On the way home, however (after a first place win) I started to notice a cramp in my right leg. We stopped for Starbucks (Starbucks cures everything) but even after a short rest, I had a major charliehorse from driving and sitting all day...fortunately, my friend Laura was with me and agreed to make the drive home. Our choices were basically to stay stuck in Jacksonville because of a bum leg, or to take a deep breath and make the drive home as a passenger - I took a deep breath.

Fortunately, there was no panic attack this time, but I was surprised when Laura looked over and said, "ok, you can let go of the door handle now." I hadn't even realized that I was tightly squeezing the door for about the first half hour of the trip. After that, I tried not to grab for the handle everytime we went through construction...but I couldn't help it whenever we passed by a semi - that was just neccessary - and fortunately, Laura had the grace to pretend she didn't notice. Needless to say, we made it home safely and even in only about 5 & 1/2 hours thanks to her ability (unlike me) to drive above the speed limit. By the end of the trip I was very proud of my ability to take a giant step forward in conquering my control issue...now, if I could only stop with the tooth dreams.