Today is the five year anniversary of when we moved to DC. I can tell you exactly where I was at this time five years ago: on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A few hours from now, I was pulling into a motel outside of Hagerstown, an hour or so away from DC. But before then, I was on the Turnpike and then I was on I-70. I have driven that stretch of the Turnpike many many times over the past 15 years. To and from college, and then to and from grad school. On that night, we’d been driving all day, and it was dark, and we’d been packing the truck until late the night before and we were tired; pretty much the same story as all the other moves from the Midwest to the East Coast or back in the other direction that we’d made before then.

I refer to that night, only half jokingly, as the time the Friends theme saved my life. I was listening to the radio, because I’d gotten tired of the tapes I had in the car, and I had the windows down (no air conditioning, since I was driving the Mustang), and it was a beautiful night. Coming over the mountains where I-70 drops down from the Turnpike to Maryland is my favorite part of the drive, the way the valley just opens up and you get this beautiful panoramic view of the area. That night, there was a bright moon, and after spending the whole evening with truckers, there was no one on the road but us. At one point, I caught a turn in the road just right and I was the only one there. I couldn’t see the headlights of the truck on the road behind me, there was no one coming in the other direction, and I turned off the car’s lights, just for a few seconds, just to see what it was like to be out there, in the mountains, with just the light of the moon. It was spectacular.

It was later, about a half hour down the road, when I had been lulled into a daze, driving out of habit. I don’t know if I was really asleep at the wheel, or just in a road coma, but I remember being jolted fully awake by the unmistakable sound of the intro to the Friends theme. I wasn’t really sure where we were, or how far I’d come from the earlier moment when I had been fully alert and convinced I could drive all night. But, clearly I couldn’t drive all night, and on a mountain in the dark is no place to be falling asleep at the wheel. So we stopped, and everything was fine. Well, as fine as they could be while staying in a $35/night motel, an experience that I won’t dwell on here.

I don’t think I’ve heard the Friends theme since then, but I can call it up and see the road appearing in front of me, the shock of having been drifting off, and the relief of realizing that nothing bad had happened.

So, happy moving-to-DC anniversary to us! And, thank you, Rembrandts, for making it all possible.