Back at the wheel

i drove to the office today for the first time in over two months. getting back behind the wheel was something i had shrank from ever since that nasty little sideswipe on shaw. so i was wary and tense, with shoulders tight and hunched over the wheel, as max and i puttered along the streets of mandaluyong.

at first i was a menace to the motoring public by virtue of my complete wimpiness -- "speeding" at 20kph, meekly letting everyone and their second cousins cut into my lane (marlon barking "guard your lane! guard it!" at me was but a faint memory), keeping an abnormally wide distance on my right, and slowing to an almost-full stop at the sight of delivery trucks.

i must have slowed to about 0.5kph on shaw, as i approached the very spot where i had my accident. it was a good thing my favorite feel-good track from club for five's album was playing at that moment -- i couldn't resist singing along and smiling.

and somewhere between the shaw mrt station and megamall i realized so much had happened to me since the accident -- so much that had made me tougher and better and less likely to fold in on myself. (mostly i was thinking of how i dragged my suitcase all over spain.)

thus emboldened, i reached staggering speeds of 60kph on edsa, valiantly guarding my lane from a renegade kia van, and parked in one smooth movement in front of my office. hurray!