Dear Internet,
Let it be known that I have a horrible sense of direction. The worst part of it is that I also get really strong feelings of intuition when driving, that is, I often "have a feeling" of what direction I need to go in. Unfortunately, these feelings are almost always wrong. It's one of those things when they're right often enough that I never know if I'm going to be right or wrong.
For example, this Friday I was driving from the city I'm living in now to where my boyfriend lives, but I was running early and he was still at work. So I had to drive to where he's working. Which wouldn't normally be a problem, as I had a GPS with me (my aunt and uncle's, her name is Vanessa) and presumably GPS' know where EVERYTHING is. Sadly, Vanessa seemed a bit lost when I asked her to look for a place with the word "institute" in the title. Or "quantum." Or, the entire title, "Institute for Quantum Computing." At this point I was sitting in the mall parking lot intensely trying to figure out whether or not Vanessa had any idea about what I was talking about. Finally, I told Vanessa that she could take a break, as I knew the following things: the general area the IQC is located, the fact that it is very close to my university, and what direction the university is in from the mall, due to my many trips between the mall and university via bus.
Unfortunately, I was feeling creative.
"Gee, I bet I could find a faster way from here to there without following the bus route," I told myself, "The bus has to make a ton of stops, but I think that if I follow this one street, I can get to a street that borders the university." So I went that way. And I drove. Followed my intuition at every turn. "Hm, should I turn here, or continue straight?"
Finally, I found myself in endless farmland. Passed a few horse and buggies. Thought to myself, "I should have Vanessa get me SOMEWHERE more helpful before I find myself running out of gas on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere and having to ask a bunch of Mennonites to give me a ride back to the world-wide hub of science and math (a.k.a. my university, which is awesome).
So I had Vanessa guide me to the correct office park, and I saw where I went wrong, and laughed at myself in the re-realization that I should never, never follow my intuition and ALWAYS stick to directions and what I KNOW FOR SURE to be true...instead of being silly and being creative. It's like the worst combination ever of my mom's and my dad's unique senses of directions; my dad pretty much has an internal GPS, whereas my mom never has any idea where she's going. I have the actual sense of direction of my mother, but the intuition and random feelings of which way I should go from my dad. But since I have such a poor sense of direction, the feelings are, as I stated before, almost always wrong.
Anyways, I eventually made it to Steve, after making peace with Vanessa and giving him a call when I knew I was close. Although I have to say that it's a little weird that Vanessa had no idea what I was talking about. Not something I've ever experienced with a GPS.
"I WANT TO GO HERE!"
"...Did you mean, perhaps, that you want to go to this other, completely unrelated place?"
Also, at one point, Vanessa thought that I was driving off the road and was desperately trying to get me to see the light of pavement, telling me to take these turns onto roads that she knew existed. I thought it was entertaining, while at the same time worried that she wouldn't properly direct me to where I was going.
Anyways, I've rambled quite enough for today. So, internet, until...later!
Sincerely,
Caro
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