I was driving to Tennessee today and something strange happened. My mind has been really negatively preoccupied for the past few days. In order to combat the obsessive thoughts, I turned the new Sloan CD up loud and I started singing along. I also started driving much faster, much much faster, than the law allows.

For the past couple of months as I've driven to Tennessee to visit the family there has been this one billboard that everytime I've driven by has given me chills. It's a picture of a pair of missing children, and offers a $15,000 reward.

I've been noticing it every week. Seeing it always reminds me about how cruel, random, and unfair the world can be. I hope those kids are still alive and I think of the desperation the parents must be going through. It makes me feel really sad, and I know there is nothing I can do about it but feel sad.

I saw it today then maybe a minute later I past by a TN State trooper, who as I passed turned on his lights and started to give chase.

I'm starting to think that I'm fucked. How fast was I going? I don't remember. I know I had slipped up to ninety a few minutes earlier. Not on purpose mind you, but somehow my speed had matched my mood. Then I was singing along, trying to escape my thoughts. Now I was speeding along hoping to escape the cops.

Turns out, I saw that billboard at just the right moment. I saw it and it brought me down emotionally and in turn I took my foot off the pedel and slowed the car down physically. The trooper flew right past me.

Close call, eh?

What have I learned from this?

Slow down, buckle up, don't drink and drive, and... and... that it's okay to feel sad and dissapointed in the world at times. If that's what's called for at a moment then maybe that's what keeps people from getting into more serious trouble.

Or more likely,

I just got really lucky.