getting there

Bug smashed stepped on my foot last night.  It really hurt and I sat, holding it for a while.  He kissed my head sweetly and apologized.  But when I didn't immediately hop back onto it, he questioned me.  "Didn't it get there yet?"


I know this is an odd segue (I just really had to share his words), but twice this week I have made really good driving decisions when I thought there was a chance that I was either getting myself lost or at least making my drive much longer than needed.  Both times I "got there" and was pretty amazed at myself.  I have lived in Atlanta, within 8 miles of here, since 1992.  I still get lost all the time. 

I blame Indianapolis for this.  I learned to drive in Indy.  In Indy the roads make a grid, with a few diagonals tossed in for Midwestern fun.  If you miss a turn, you just make three more and four rights can make it right. When I first started driving in Atlanta, I always got turned around.  There is a street near the Fernbank Science Center where I have made U-turns so many times that it just feels natural to turn onto the street yet again.  I've seldom made the correct turn there, so the correct street is unfamiliar.  I soon learned that it took me seven right turns to get from my home to my job.  No lefts at all.  Two area streets crossed each other in two locations, adding to my confusion.  Four rights in Atlanta?  Definitely make a wrong.

And here I am, eighteen years later (wow, that's a long time!) and I still have trouble getting from point B to point C.  But this week I trusted myself (well, I questioned myself, but I kept going) and it turned out well, even better than the route I'd intended, both times.  Maybe I'm making progress.  I know I certainly can never move.