Woke up this morning

And after 3 months of bustin' our butts getting everything ready, we had an inklin' to go on home. So we're drivin' down I-35E through rush hour one last time, as the sun hangs low at 3 or 4 o'clock in the evenin'.

The sun's going down and I'm clench-gripped and singing. We wind ourselves down the road, the General Blender playlist cued up on the Ipod, settlin' in for that long, long haul down the road back home.

And the brakelights continue ahead of us, mingling with the rest of the traffic, always traffic, too much traffic, and it never stops. All of a sudden I flash back to having been hit from the side. Four or 5 times in the last 9 years, yes, 9 years I've spent here in this rat-race hell-hole, 9 years wasted bathed in cortisol, 9 years with a defensive snake coiled around me in protection.

And now I'm gonna let it all deflate, dissipate, dissolve into the clean air. I say, so long, Dallas. So long, brazenly-pushy sales associates who don't even bother hiding their exclusive quest for money anymore. So long, tailgaiting BMW or snotty Mercedes all over the road. So long, Lexus SUV up on Legacy and Lebanon who arrived at the 4-way stop sign last and attempts to go first. So long, miserable ppl in line at Chipotle who have it all and yet hate their lives. So long, irresponsible 80-hour-a-week-working parents who use money and electronics as babysitters for their orphaned children in their ultimate quest to make the third mortgage on a 5,500 sq ft McMansion. So long developers who turn this quiet grassland with mature trees into monotonous brick stripmalls who can't be bothered to put up lights for Christmas. So long utopian Nazis strangling yourselves in petty ordinances. So long lego pad lawns that reek of chemicals. So long asshole single people who tailgate me in the HOV lane because you think you've got one up on everyone else. So long crazy people who elect to sit in rush hour traffic for 2 hours each way because you work in towntown Dallas but live in once-peaceful Prosper or Celina to "get away from it all". Well now I'm finally getting away from you.

Woke up this mornin', turned my engine on. Mama always said we'd eventually get there sometime. It's a chance in a million, gotta make it shine, leave these crazy people with the full moon in their eyes.

Settle in for that long, long haul down the road back home.