Thursday, August 28, 2008

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.


4 comments:

helgor said...

Have fun here in T.O.! It's raining here today, but looks good for the rest of the weekend.

Are you here for bookish stuff?

NBB said...

People seldom ask me for directions, but when they do, you can bet that they ask for places/streets that I have never heard of or don't know the way to (and I know my way around fairly well in my hometown)

kc dyer said...

Hi Helene!

No -- bringing my girl to school. The sun is shining today -- a lovely end to August!

~kc

kc dyer said...

Hi nbb,

I was asked again in Toronto, mere hours after I posted this entry.

Remarkable.

~kc