i need to stretch

I went to Borders today. I hate that store. It's so... common. Take Barnes and Noble, take out all the pleasant, atmosphere-inducing furniture, make it less friendly, put a bunch of creepy old people (not nice old people), and replace anything that might be useful with crappy best sellers and mass produced teeny-bopper address books, and you've got Borders. Although I don't drink coffee, I'd bet that their cafe is crappier, too. So while I was looking through the postcard/ stationary set area, i came across a box of postcards labeled "Going Places." The pictures were awful, but behind it there was a matching book. The book was pretty interesting- it had a section for 'where I'm going/what to see/how I'm getting there', one for 'pre-trip budget/how much I actually spend per day/ etc', and then places for notes and journal type stuff. The way it's set up, though, makes it useful for exactly one trip. Want to go somewhere else? Gotta buy another one for another $15. But. After I had looked through it, and stuck it back on the shelf, I thought to myself, too bad I'm not going places. I'm not even going place. So I walked away from that book and went and bought an overpriced "leather-look" empty journal. I know, that's so Tolkien-fan-like of me. I actually bought it because it had a little flap on the right hand side with a magnet in it so the book stays closed, and because the paper had a nice feel to it. I could really do without the leathery look and plasticky texture. Anyway, back to my narrative. I'm going to clean out my car so there isn't any trash in it. I'm going to put the book somewhere where it'll be really noticable so i see it every day, and it reproaches me. I'm going to change my work schedule so I don't work Saturdays. I'm going to be a good student and do my homework during the week so I'll be free weekends and not feel guilty. I'm going to start small. Day trips. Afternoon trips, even. Just to make my life a little more interesting. After doing this for a semester, Stacey (my well meaning, but empty-headed car) and I will be ready to make a real road trip during the summer. Drive all over, do a Twine Tour. Hopefully Krista will come, too. Or Lauren. Or maybe I'll make a new friend between now and then. Or maybe I'll buy a dog. The point is, I'm tired of driving down the same street every day, seeing the same line of businesses followed by the same line of houses, and then driving back the other way a few hours later. Everything in my life is too familiar, and I want to see something different. So there. Go watch Breaking Away. That was the other thing I thought when I saw the book. "But I'm not going anywhere." "Oh, I'm not so sure about that..."