Driving Woes

Walking around the city is, well, a cake walk. To get from point A to point B, you take the closest thing to a straight line you can get. No problem. (Side note: Watch for gas pipes sticking out from buildings while walking. Just ask my thigh; it had a nasty run-in with one such pipe last night. Perhaps I should look ahead while walking and talking. Or perhaps I should give walking and talking a break. My body needs time to heal after all.) Driving in the city is not as cut and dry. You look at a map (because like me, you don't have a GPS... kickin' it old school). You plot your course. You're confident in the adventure you're about to embark upon.

Your preparation is crap.

One-ways pop up out of nowhere and suddenly you're back, staring at the same brick apartments on Memorial Drive and smelling the delicious, grilled fare wafting from the green where the same weekenders are tossing footballs and frisbees, when you swore you were on the other side of the Charles and can't remember crossing the bridge, any bridge, again but apparently you had (because how else could you wind up enroute to Harvard Square?!) and last you thought you were about to stumble upon the Whole Foods in Brighton, which is thrilling because dinner time has arrived and you need to pick up a few items for the almost empty pantry at home and your stomach is demanding you fill it soon, the same way your gas tank will demand shortly if you don't find your way out of the hell hole known as Boston's (and Greater Boston's) crazy web of streets. Geesh! If you nodded along to that long-winded shpeel (I can guarantee this is not a word, but I may need to submit it to Webster... I say it fairly often. If anyone knows a spelling for this word, please let me know.) then you've been in my shoes. You've driven in a city, which means you've gotten lost in a city.

Despite my frustrations behind the wheel and my inevitable cursing, I still believe that losing my way is ironically the best way to learn. Let's just hope I learned a lifetime's worth today!