Driving Adventures

Taya is a good friend of mine. We have known each other for 3 ½ years now and we still get along. She is a delicate Asian girl with surprising strength, pain tolerance, patience and diligence. We keep in touch and love going on adventures together. We would go all over California, spontaneously. Sometimes others would go with us and sometimes we would go alone. The only problem would be the fact that neither one of us has a good sense of direction. We would always get lost and end up wasting gas and time trying to get places we were supposed to be. One time, when we were with Tina, we were coming home from San Jose. Tina was exhausted so we were in charge of the navigating. It was time to get back to the Vallejo area. With Tina asleep, Taya and I figured we would be able to get home, all we had to do was retrace how we got there in the first place. It sounds easier than it is, we ended up lost in downtown Oakland, going the wrong way on a one way street and being pulled over by a cop. I was so worried about getting home that I didn’t even care if I got a ticket. Well the cop took a look at my license and then smiled and said he didn’t want someone like me driving around his city when I don’t know the roads or what the heck is going on. He told me to follow him and then led me to the freeway. Taya and I cheered when we got back on the road, Tina was still asleep through all of that. Then somehow I ended up in downtown Sanfrancisco. Tina woke up for this one, curious where we were and why we weren’t home yet. While Taya continued to try to get us out, I explained to Tina what happened. We stopped at a gas station because I was on empty and I swallowed my pride. I went into the station and asked for directions. That took a lot for me and Tina was shocked. Well the directions weren’t even that great and I continued to be lost. Finally Tina saw a road she recognized and she ended up leading us all back onto the 80. Well Taya and I were able to find our way for the rest of the trip but Tina was unable to fall asleep again.

That was when we met Jullien. He is very good at directions and helps keep us company when we decide we want to go somewhere. At first Taya and I were so happy to no longer be getting lost as much that we all got along great, although Taya would not talk to Jullien. I guess she was a little jealous of the attention he was receiving. As usual with certain of my friends, I ended up the middle person. Both wanted to spend time with me and I wanted to spend time with both but they didn’t like being alone together. Well Jullien went through a period where he was a little confused. He would act like, look like and talk like a girl. Even with his name, which could be considered feminine, many people thought he was. I even caught myself calling him a she. Well he didn’t seem to mind. We went on different adventures but after awhile he began to get on my nerves a little bit. He was so strict on his navigational skills that there was no wiggle room. I wanted to go one way and he would get frustrated and upset with me. Sometimes he would just yell back his directions over and over again just to make me upset. Other times he would give me the silent treatment and refused to give me directions at all. I ended up getting lost at times but things always seemed to clear up and we would all get to where we were going.

On our latest adventure, Kirsten went with us. We all drove to Utah for General Conference, to see friends and to watch a friend in his play. The drive up was uneventful. There weren’t any arguments until we arrived in Utah, probably because all we had to do was stay on the 80. We made one stop for gas and that was it. In Utah the drivers were crazy, scaring both Taya and myself. It took me a couple of days to get used to how people drove and how I could get away with driving. Kirsten thought the arguments were funny and at times would even encourage them. Well the Utah environment changed us all a little bit but Jullien most of all. Towards the end of our trip he decided that he didn’t want to appear feminine anymore, he gained a love for the Spanish language. He isn’t terribly fluent but has learned certain phrases and words, which he likes to repeat over and over to see who he can annoy. His voice is a deeper masculine voice that Kirsten really likes to hear and she calls him Antonio. Well the change kept everything content and free of arguments for a while but by the time we got close to the California border we were arguing again. Taya was exhausted, and Kirsten having too much fun egging us on in our argument. I was mostly grumpy for lack of food and Jullien didn’t know the area very well and said that there really weren’t any food places nearby. I knew we should have stopped for something to eat while in Nevada. I spotted a huge In-N-Out sign, Kirsten was tired of burgers but I was needing something before my migraine became unbearable. I pulled out anyways and then Taya spotted a Marie Calendar’s and Kirsten said we should go there. After being fed it was time to finish our trip. We were all tired and kept mostly to ourselves for the rest of the trip.