there isn't any time in my life that i've felt as free as when it's just me in my car, driving around on the deserted nighttime streets of the small, mountain town i live in.

i was a nanny for five years & lived with the family i worked for. privacy was hard to come by, but after the day was through (if i wasn't @ the pub swilling sapphire tonics) i found privacy & release in my tri-weekly 100 mile journeys.

i would hop in the car with a handful of random mixes & a fresh pack of cigarettes (a habit i've now quit, but still miss only while driving) & drive for fifty miles ... turn around & head back. just to clear my head & with only the night breeze as company, be truly alone for an hour or so.

driving @ night warrants a different flavor of music for me than driving during the day. i want a lot of "boom-chuck-a-boom-a-chuck-a" guitar rhythms & the sort of airy, meandering songs that let me daydream about where i'm headed & reflect on where i've been.

am heading to oregon to visit my heterosexual-life-partner @ the end of the month, this mix will loop back on itself nicely as i wind my way through the mountains to the sea before i head north.