I'm still working on the travelogue. Things take so much longer when you have actual writing standards.
And I have just not been at my best this week, though I'm not sure I can come up with any good reason for that. My lowest point came on Friday morning, when I was covering a meeting for my boss. Since I was going somewhere that I hadn't been before, I left myself an entire hour for a drive that Mapquest estimated should take 23 minutes. Traffic would inevitably add to that a bit, of course, but I should have still had plenty of time. The directions were simple (basically two turns) so I didn't bother to print out the map.
Except that one of the roads they told me to use was closed and Northern Virginia is not the most Cartesian place on the planet. In short, I never managed to actually find the intersection at which I was supposed to turn and I'm not actually convinced that the two streets involve really do meet.
After realizing that no matter what I did I was going to be late, I found a phone and called the point of contact for the meeting. And found out that the meeting was at an entirely different location than the one I had been trying to find for 40 minutes. One that was: a) closer to where I live and b) did not involve any closed roads or non-existent intersections.
I did make it in time to get the gist of the discussion, so it wasn't a waste, but it was still stressful. I should, of course, have confirmed where the meeting was. And it's not a bad idea to print out maps even if the directions are simple.
I suppose this is just another one to add to the "Miriam has no sense of direction" file. The classic story along those lines is the time I had to drive to an airport terminal and follow an Avis bus because I couldn't find the rental car return lot. I still think that was a very clever solution to the problem.
I'm reasonably sure that I won't be reincarnated as a homing pigeon.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel