I popped in a CD – The Best of the Doobie Brothers this time – and cranked up the volume to keep me awake, same as always. I stopped by Starbucks for a grande decaf latte, same as always. Took the freeway to where I-80 merges with Interstate 395, that grand old mess of looped interchanges and exits Reno locals call the Spaghetti Bowl. Same as always. Only not quite. Instead of veering right and taking the next off ramp, a left at the light three blocks down, and a right two blocks over into the parking garage, I stayed in the left lane and kept on driving east on the interstate. And just like that, I quit my job. Crazy, huh? Maybe I always was crazy and nobody ever noticed. I had plenty of time after that to think about what I was doing. Once you get past Sparks going east on I-80, there's a whole lot of nothing but empty road since all the early morning traffic's going the other way. All those cars carrying commuters to their jobs, and none of them was me. My heart hammered in my chest there for a while, let me tell you.
