Groundhogs and Desire

I took my Internal Med exam on the 21st, and after that I pretty much crumpled. I went home and zombied around my apartment. I had planned to do christmas shopping and clean up my place, but it just didn't happen. The last semester had been hellish in several ways and I just needed to stop and play Civilization for awhile. But that's in the past, and now I'm on a BREAK! YEEEEEE!

I used my first night of freedom to watch the movie Black Sheep with my friend Steve. If you haven't seen it yet, then I strongly encourage you to forget that this movie had ever been made. It was awful. Yes, I knew going in that it was about genetically-engineered flesh-eating sheep gone awry, and I had adjusted my (few) standards accordingly. But still. The sheep were the best actors by far. I'll just save you the trouble and tell you what happened at the end: after the obligatory blood-bath the sheep had lots of gas. Apparently this is a big problem if you've been feasting on human flesh. Anyway, after the sheep had eaten all the Japanese investors, they cornered our hero and the idiotic environmentalist girl. At this point I was convinced it was all over. Surely they would be eaten, too, or at least get turned into flesh-eating sheep themselves. But I was wrong. Our hero, thinking quickly, lit his zippo and threw it into their midst. Then the sheep blew up in a fiery fartstorm. The End.

The next morning I packed my things for the trip to my parents house, all the while fighting images from the night before. (Did they really need to show the sheep biting off the evil farmer's wiener?) Then I embarked on the five-hour drive to my mom's house. It was raining. Most of the drive looked like this:

But even more fuzzy because I still haven't replaced the glasses I lost two months ago.

Most people I know hate long drives by themselves, but I don't mind so much. I blare good music and I'm living in my fantasies, the world is whizzing by and I'm feeling all the possibilities of life ahead of me...and I love it. Sometimes I think it's when I'm happiest, when I'm in between places.

So I was feeling pretty good right before I realized I'd missed my exit like, half an hour ago. Dammit. Why do I always have to be such a space cadet?? I got off the next exit, re-routing and realizing that it would add another hour to my drive. The new-chosen road was irritatingly slow and winding with lots of stops and small towns.

And then, I saw The Sign. (It was at night and was freezing out and my fingers were getting numb so I didn't try to get a better picture. I know it looks funny, but it's real. Skeptical? Go ahead, mapquest it.):

Which way would you go?

So I stopped. I wondered why other drivers didn't stop to ponder this choice as well. Maybe to them it made perfect sense that paradise and primal human drives lie in one direction, while a weather-predicting groundhog lies in the other.

The only conclusion I could come to was this: don't get lost in Pennsylvania.

I headed toward the groundhog since that was closer to home, it was late and my mom was starting to get worried. I plan to come back and visit the other places later. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do once I get there. Check out a diner? Eat an apple?

Anyone wanna come with me?