Does This Look Like the Face of Someone Who Knows Where They Are Going?

Everywhere I go, people ask me for directions.

Everywhere.

I have been asked directions in Portland, Toronto, New York, Calgary and Vancouver in just the last couple of months alone. Rural Ontario last November. Kamloops, BC. Red Deer, Alberta.

And I just don't get it. I am virtually always lost. This is my last day in New York, and on this trip I have been lost or headed off in the wrong direction so many times I cannot count them.

You'd think my non-existent sense of direction would hang about my person like a shroud. And yet...

In the past 4 days, I have been asked directions at least a dozen times. Once, I had a map on me and was able to help the person get where they were going. [success!] But the rest? Nada.

Usually the best I can offer is to be lost together, but I have actually stopped offering that -- not because creepy people have taken me up on it, but because the direction-asker generally rolls their eyes and runs off to ask someone else. I must have an honest-enough face for the initial inquiry, but perhaps my appearance becomes increasingly untrustworthy as the conversation continues. Or maybe my karmic shroud of lost begins to shine through my eyes.

I want to tell these poor souls that I make my living being lost -- and that I like it, in fairly small doses, when it doesn't involve dark alleys. (Actually, I rather like dark alleys, now that I think of it. A lot of potential in dark alleys...)

But I digress. Tomorrow I'm off to Toronto, and I can guarantee you that someone will ask me how to get somewhere. I guess I should just consider myself lucky that they aren't telling me where to go!

~kc*

*It's the final week for the SiWC Writing Contest! Check out my blog here for more details, or click on the SiWC contest page to find out more.