Mom. Where are you going??

I usually don't like to talk about this because for those of you who still think I'm perfect it may shatter your whole vision of me. The truth is I do have this tiny little flaw that I'm not very proud of. I consider myself a fairly reliable, capable, independent woman. I've been driving since I was 14 years old, I started working at 15 and worked until into my mid 30's when Alex was born. I've lived in 5 different cities since becoming an adult. I've never had an accident (while I was driving) and I've only received a couple (maybe 3) speeding tickets in my life. The problem is I have a tendancy to get lost. I always find my way eventually and before we had kids I could keep it to myself and Mark would just wonder sometimes what took me so long.. :-).

ThankfuIly I do know my directions and the first thing Mark taught me when we moved to Denver was "the mountains are always West". That is very helpful except for when it's dark out like the time I was coming back from the airport after dropping Mark off and I got lost. YES I got lost coming home from the airport. An airport I had been to many times. I won't go into great detail but sometimes I tend to mentally wander off and then I saw a sign and thought I was missing my turn so made a quick decision and turned. Well it was wrong, so I wandered around Aurora in the dark for nearly an hour. Oh it feels good to get this off of my chest. That was years ago and Mark still brings it up. He will say "I still can't believe you got lost coming home from the AIRPORT!". See he was expecting me to call when I got home, that was before we had cell phones. Otherwise he would have never had to know. He just can't wrap his mind around it. Mark is one of those people that have a built in compass. He NEVER gets lost. He can visit a city once and pretty much know his way around.

Another problem I have is coming out of a location and going the wrong way. Must be an inner ear thing ; ). I went to pick Alex up at a birthday party the other night and I started going one direction and I was sure it was the wrong way. I was trying to find a place to turn around when Alex said "Mom, What are you doing?". I said I'm going the wrong way (again it was dark and I couldn't see the mountains) He said "NO YOUR NOT" "KEEP GOING". I was sure he was wrong and determined to prove it to him when I saw the street we needed to turn on. He said "SEE MOM!". After the party I was taking Alex to a friends house to spend the night. We had only been there once before but it wasn't far from our house and I was sure I would remember which house it was. Well we found it and walked up to the door. We rang the doorbell 3 times and no one answered! I thought they had forgotten or something and I was thinking about how dissapointed Alex was going to me when a nice looking young man teenager person walked up to us from the street and said "Who are you looking for?" I told him the friends name and he smiled and said "he lives around the corner". So we found it and everything was fine. I was only 1 cul de sac off, give me a break! Hopefully Alex will be sleep deprived when he comes home and won't bring it up in front of Mark. I really don't want to see that dumbfounded look on his face that I've seen so many times before that clearly means "I just don't belive this girl."


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One more thing. Am I the only one that gets turned around coming out of hospital rooms? I always want to go the wrong way?? What's the deal with that. I've been lost in a hospital more then once.. right Dad?? I won't even go into the time that Mark was having a procedure and Dad and I went to get the car and got lost. Mark left the wheelchair he was in at the front door with a horrified nurse saying "you can't leave". He told her he had to because his wife and dad would never find there way back. He found us and helped us find the car.. Sorry Dad I shouldn't tell on you too but "the truth will set us free"! Don't you feel better already?

Many years ago we were camping in the mountains (pre kids) with Monica and Tamara. Mark's younger sisters for those of you who don't know. I think they were pre teen or early teenager age or something around there. Mark sent us to town for something we had forgotten and when we were leaving the campsite and getting on the highway the girls said "I think you are going the wrong direction". I assured them I was going the right way and they would soon see. I could see them eyeing one another in the rear view mirrow, looking a bit like "Where is she taking us?". Well after being on the road for what seemed like way to long I had to concede I must have gone the wrong way but how could that be? There again, must be an inner ear thing. So I turned around and eventually got to town, got what we needed and headed back. Mark was very agitated and said "What took you so long?!!". The girls said "she went the wrong way". There was that look again. So perplexed and confused.

So there it is. It's out there. Now you know. It's a bit like life. I may take the wrong turn, go the wrong direction, knock (or ring the doorbell) on the wrong door but eventually I get back on track and find my way home.