driving | Authentically Aurora

Most nights I sleep soundly, my consciousness wrapped snugly in the velvety blackness of slumber, not to wake until the gentle rays of morning light permeate my eyelids and my lashes flutter open to greet the day.

Last night was not such a night. Last night, I jolted into consciousness on three separate occasions from three separate nightmares.

But I’m not stressed at all.

*twitch, twitch*

Around midnight, I jerked awake an instant before my rental car slammed into the back of the vehicle in front of me.

A few hours later, my dreams transported me back to my childhood bathroom, where I kept trying to apply deodorant, but there was none left in the stick. I looked down to the floor, and there was the remainder of the deodorant, having fallen out of the tube.

Then, around 4am, I tore myself from sleep to escape the nightmare of being late to school. Because that’s a totally reasonable nightmare for a nearly-30 working professional to have.

According to DreamsCloud, I am apparently in emotional distress and feeling loss of control because a plan or project is facing unforeseen obstacles (my career), as well as feeling growing distance to my family (parents are now grandparents; brothers are engrossed in married lives), and I sense an inability to deliver on the tasks ahead of me and subsequent evaluations and judgments of my worth (upcoming interview).

No big deal. Just another day in the life of…

Authentically Aurora

This week, I have oddly taken on qualities of invisibility.

Three times in the past 48 hours, another vehicle has attempted to change lanes into me while going 70 mph on the freeway. Each time, only my defensive driving skills prevented an accident.

Once, I veered onto the left shoulder. Another time, I honked my horn, and the offending vehicle swerved back into its lane to avoid a collision. And most recently, I actually had to swerve into the lane next to me, where a third car slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting me as I tried to avoid a collision with the idiot driver who didn’t even notice my existence as he cruised along.

My car is not slate gray. Or brown. It is freaking neon blue. Yes, we’ve had sunny days here lately, but I’m pretty gosh darn sure my car doesn’t blend in with the sky. How could these drivers not see me?!

As much as I don’t appreciate these attempts on my life, I suppose perhaps I should embrace my newfound status of invisibility. It sure beats being the target of everyone’s potshots.

And hey, Mia Thermopolis found true love by identifying the one guy who saw her when she was invisible.

There’s hope for me yet.