Happiness is...

… having an experienced, cool-calm-collect chauffeur.

This week Ray was in charge of driving us all over New York, and he did it with grace. I never, not even once, saw him get stressed. Not when we missed multiple exits because we were so busy talking about our future plans (it was a blow to his ego though, because he never misses turns). And missing an exit in NYC is a big deal. It takes at least 20 minutes to get back on track. He didn’t get stressed when he was responsible for getting us to 7th and 53rd (Time Square) where we were going to stay with two of his grad school friends. Not even when we were driving to the airport the next day. As we exited the Lincoln tunnel, on the way to the Newark airport, we noticed a big, black blob in the road ahead. It was a bag of trash that had come out of a garbage truck. Soon enough we were dodging bags of trash every 100 yards. Some of the bags were even more exciting because they had already been hit by a car and had thus exploded… everywhere. We both giggled as we drove along (Ray says he didn’t giggle… that he never giggles… you decide). Ray would say, “I feel like I’m in a video game.” I thought, “I hope this is the kind of video game where you get points for NOT hitting the objects… not vice versa.”

Maybe I’m giving Ray too much credit. All he really had to do was follow the trash to Jersey (no offense Garden State). Even he didn’t think his driving skills were anything exceptional. However, I KNOW they are, because I once saw him parallel park in a space that left less than 4 inches in between the front and back bumpers and the other two cars. It was an Austin Power’s moment that required 11 back-and-forth shimmies. I’ve also seen him write an e-mail on his laptop, while having a conference call on his phone, while checking his GPS on his phone, while driving on a crowded freeway.

Happiness is just plain having someone else do the driving.