the lights at the side of the interstate

 There are those small things that just sort of--let joy bloom up at the bottom of your chest, tangling your ribcage with vines of happiness. They're little things; a sunrise, the stars, pink and purple streaking across the skies in strips of clouds like a flayed corpse. 

Cue my TS Eliot card for describing the sky in weird ways.

But there are those things, you know. 

I drive forty-five minutes, about, to commute back and forth from work every day. About half of this is on the interstate. Good old I-94, my second home--this road has become family to me. The stretch between my town and my exit is something I could drive with my eyes closed. I know the turns, I know where we dip to kiss the lake, and I know the order of the exits by which small towns are at the end of them. 

It's been a long time since I've driven in the country at night.

I moved to my town about a year and a half ago. Before, when I was in college, I was in a bigger town. I know the interstate at night. I've driven the interstate at night, more than once. Some of these experiences have been good, some less so. But I haven't driven in the country late at night in at least a year. It was parent teacher conferences tonight, so I didn't leave school until eight. And driving home, at night, in the dark, on gravel--it was eerie. 

But what lifted my spirits is what always lifts my spirits on my way to work, and that is the lights at the side of the interstate, right by my exit.

I figure it's an elevator, or something? I don't know exactly what it is. But it always looks like Christmas lights, to me--it's this building on the side of the interstate, not, like, right on the side, but close enough that I can always see the lights a few miles out (keep in mind, North Dakota, if you can't see for miles in every direction something's wrong). Then I know it's almost time to turn. 

Tonight, I was on the little bit of pavement I get after seven miles of gravel, and I saw what looked like Christmas lights. And it's hard to describe why I love this fucking thing so much, I mean, I know it's just an elevator, or factory, or something. But it feels so cheerful, and it feels so nice, and I love it so goddam much. And when I see this bitch on the side of the interstate--it's friendly. It's beautiful. This set of lights is straight-up beautiful, and it is one hundred per cent the highlight of my commute every morning.