I was trying to pick a CD to take with me for driving to Charlene’s services yesterday, and I stumbled upon Journey’s Escape, purchased with my first year roommate at UofH, when we both joined one of those music clubs to get 11 CDs for a penny. I thought Journey would be a good pick for the era that Char and I were good friends; we graduated in 1982.

I was surprised (and only a little embarrassed) to discover I knew practically all the words to every song, even the ones that weren’t radio hits. The biggest mistake was when I pulled into the funeral home’s parking lot Open Arms was playing and I was a big blubbering mess.

After the service (and decompressing at home) I went to dinner with Goldy and since she had missed her bus I told her I would take her out to Herndon where she can pick up her car from the commuter lot. Driving back into town around 11:30, with Thomas Dolby and Depeche Mode’s Speak and Spell blaring from the speakers I had an odd sense of déja vu. Twenty or twenty-five years ago I was taking the exact same route, probably at the exact same time on a Friday night, to go downtown and party. Destinations at the time would have been Winston’s or Poseurs in Georgetown, Lost & Found or maybe Badlands in Dupont. A-ha, Hall & Oates or Arcadia would most definitely have been blaring from the “tapedeck” at that time. Or maybe Styx or Journey.

After passing through the toll plaza I see the cars exit that are heading north and south on the Beltway but I and several other cars keep going, taking the most direct route into town. I wonder if they’re coming into town to do what I was doing years ago. Possibly.

Today I’ll head back out to Annapolis for Charlene’s former funeral service. I’ll bring the Escape CD with me again but I’m really wishing I had Paradise Theater or something by Heart or Pat Benatar. Wait, I’ve got it: Go-Go’s Beauty and the Beat!