Getting Coffee Can Be an Adventure, If You Have Social Anxiety Disorders
on my way to get my afternoon coffee a girl stopped me and asked where the YMCA was downtown. i pointed to the street ahead of us, "turn left at that street, go three or four blocks and it will be on the left." the directions seemed simple enough, but then i started second guessing myself and ended up walking with her to the corner and looking down the street just to make sure.
the second guessing isn't unfounded. once i was walking toward downtown on 14th street when a white suburban from iowa pulled up. the driver leaned out and asked me where bryan LGH hospital was. confidently i told him to go over to 13th street and head south, adding that the street would dead-end in the hospital parking lot. they pulled off, following my directions. i walked on and half a block later realized that it's 16th street that dead-ends at the hospital, 13th will eventually lead you to the state pen.
i knew this. and yet, when i processed the directions something got crossed in my mind and out came the wrong thing.
the second guessing isn't unfounded. once i was walking toward downtown on 14th street when a white suburban from iowa pulled up. the driver leaned out and asked me where bryan LGH hospital was. confidently i told him to go over to 13th street and head south, adding that the street would dead-end in the hospital parking lot. they pulled off, following my directions. i walked on and half a block later realized that it's 16th street that dead-ends at the hospital, 13th will eventually lead you to the state pen.
i knew this. and yet, when i processed the directions something got crossed in my mind and out came the wrong thing.
posted by Ellen at 2:03 PM
4 Comments:
Maybe you could put Mrs. Castle at the end of a street and give someone directions to her.
Do you know how to get the coffee shop...in Wahoo, NE? I can't find it.
Didn't we get stopped for directions at least once in Italy, by Italians? As if our Americanness weren't obvious, let alone our severe-directionally-challengedness.
At least you could identify what this stranger was looking for. All the new students are coming back now, and I've been asked for directions on campus 3 times last week. On ALL of these occasions, I'd never even heard of the buildings these poor people were looking for. I'm sure I looked like a total fool, especially to the person who then asked me how long I'd lived here. When I answered "Five years," I'm sure she walked away thinking me a complete idiot.
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