You think you know a person. But do you ever, really? I’ve
been long time friends with mystery writer Kate Carlisle. We met while signing
at the Poisoned Pen and bonded over pre book signing salads (okay, it was
Bloody Marys, but in our defense there are a lot of vegetables in there) and
we’ve been tight ever since. Clearly, showing up marginally inebriated at a
book signing is a bond that can’t be denied.
Anyway, when our conference schedules, line up, we like to
room together so we can talk shop, throw plots at each other, and otherwise pal
around. Naturally, when we knew we were both going to Bouchercon in Toronto, we
shacked up. Now up until now, I have been able to keep a secret from Kate, but
on this trip my subterfuge gave out and she discovered my dark secret…
I have zero sense of direction. Zip, Zero. Nada. I might as
well live in a black hole because I have no idea where I’m going ninety percent
of the time. The jig was up with Kate the third time I left our hotel room and
went the wrong way to get to the elevator.
“Turn around, sweetie, you’re headed for the ice machine,”
she said. “Again.”
Thus, my inability to find my way out of a paper bag was revealed.
Turns out the party responsible for my inability to navigate is my brain. According to an article from Scientific American:"After wandering around an unfamiliar part of town, can you sense which direction to travel to get back to the subway or your car? If so, you can thank your entorhinal cortex, a brain area recently identified as being responsible for our sense of direction. Variation in the signals in this area might even explain why some people are better navigators than others."
You can read more here: Sense of Direction
So how about you, Reds? Do you have a good sense of direction or are
you perpetually taking the scenic route like me?
LUCY BURDETTE: Aha, you've stumbled onto a major marital disagreement in our home. My family and I think we are gifted in the directional field, and John thinks we are duds. He's always surprised when we disagree on what waiting to turn and come to find out that I was correct. He calls my brother "gyro"--short for gyroscope, as he likes to tease him about his sense of direction too. I will admit that I can't find my way around Venice (Italy) as I find their winding streets impenetrable. But give me Rome, New York, or Paris and I am your girl!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Horrible. Horrible. I am so bad at directions that if I say: "I am always wrong, so I think it's this way, so let's go that way," I'm STILL WRONG. Maps, I can read them, and direct people just fine, but it doesn't translate spatially, somehow. In hotels? I am ALWAYS wrong, and now consciously figure out which way to turn and try to remember that (toward the fire extinguisher, or away from the staircase sign) , otherwise, it doesn't matter how many times I try it, I'm wrong. It kind of bothers me. I have good instincts about other things, but dead reckoning somehow passed me by. You and me, sister Jenn. Can you imagine us together?
JENN: Oh, wow, you are my people, Hank! I am ALWAYS WRONG, too. Scenic route, we're definitely taking the scenic route.
INGRID THOFT: Stick with me, Jenn and Hank. I have a stellar sense of direction. I credit my father, who was excellent at navigating, too. I’m great with maps, GPS, and, essentially, just knowing if A is over here, and K is over there, G will be here. During the Phoenix Bouchercon, Chevy Stevens and Carla Buckley nicknamed me Head Goose; they knew if they fell into formation behind me, they’d arrive at their desired destination. The one place that throws me off my game? A wooded town not far from Seattle on the other side of Lake Washington. My hubby’s office is there, and I think it’s the universe’s way of keeping me humble!
JENN: I'll fall in line with you anytime, Head Goose! LOL - that's adorable!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm in the good sense of direction camp, although perhaps not so well-developed as Ingrid's! I only just got a smartphone in 2015, so before then, all my navigating was done with maps and bushwhacking. Can you see the sun and shadows? Okay, you have east and west, and from that north and south. If you have a map in your head of the major roads in your area- the county highway and the Turnpike, say - then you aim yourself toward one of those. I guess the important part of all that is "map in your head."
JENN: Yeah, you lost me at "map in your head". I, too, got a smart phone in 2015 and it's been helpful, when I choose to believe the GPS, which for some reason I don't, so we spend a lot of time doing "legal U-turns" and "recalibrating routes".
JULIA: The one place my directional sense failed me completely? Driving around Seattle. Having lived in Maine for nearly all my adult life, with the Atlantic to the east and New Hampshire's White mountains to the west, I kept getting turned around between the Pacific and the Cascade range. "Water is East!" my brain insisted. "Mountains are West!" I was like a bird without magnetism, flapping fruitlessly in circles.
HALLIE EPHRON: Oh well, Seattle is impossible. Weren't the streets on those 'hills' deliberately routed so the families who 'ruled' them didn't have to drive through each other's neighborhoods? And Venice! When we were there the vaporettos were on strike and we had to walk everywhere. Often in circles (haven't we been on this bridge before?)
I used to have a great sense of direction but now I'm like Hank. Always exactly wrong, and even when I turned it around and go the opposite way of what I think, I'm wrong. It all began at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. It feels to me as if it's on the SOUTH side of 42nd St and I orient everything that way. Now, even when I read a map, I get it upside down and backwards.
JENN: Okay, then, if we're ever in Seattle, Head Goose is in charge!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I like maps. I can usually read maps without having to hold them upside down! And I have usually prided myself on my sense of direction, especially after wandering my way around London with nothing but an A to Z (That's pronounced "A to Zed", by the way) for years. But I've had a couple of major failures. There was the time I hired a car at Heathrow and then circumnavigated the airport for TWO hours trying to get on the road to Henley. That I blame entirely on the stupid SatNav and the lack of an actual paper map. Once I found a place to stop (not easy on English roads), turned off the SatNav, and bought a proper map, I made it to Henley in half a hour.
But then there was last year in London, which I can blame on nothing but myself. I'd convinced a long-suffering friend to meet me for dinner at a place I wanted to try, in a part of London I don't know well at all. I was turned around from the minute I got off the bus. Even with Google Maps on my phone, I somehow managed to walk miles in the wrong direction. Around and around in circles, three more buses (two of them going in the wrong direction) later, I finally reached the restaurant, thirty minutes late. Maybe that was my Grand Hyatt moment, and I'll be confused from now on!
JENN: I opted not to drive in London, Debs, so I am in awe of you!
RHYS BOWEN: I have a good sense of direction but I'm married to a man with zero. We're driving through Phoenix which is completely on a grid and I say, "We go north on 24th Street" and he says "Which way is North?" and I say..."See that mountain? It's called NORTH MOUNTAIN. Does that give you a clue?"
But I have a Venice story: which I was a teenager my parents used to rent a little villa outside Venice. They'd drive onto the island, give me and my brother some money and say "See you at five o'clock." And we'd spend all day wandering the streets. So I knew them well. Years later I took my oldest daughter back. We started to walk around the city and suddenly I'd say, "Wait. If we go through that alleyway and cut behind that church we should find ourselves.... Yes! Short cut to Rialto." It all came back to me.
JENN: I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out the Phoenix grid, Rhys. One year, maybe two? Ugh.
What about you, Readers? How's your navigational system or more precisely your entorhinal cortex?
LUCY BURDETTE: Aha, you've stumbled onto a major marital disagreement in our home. My family and I think we are gifted in the directional field, and John thinks we are duds. He's always surprised when we disagree on what waiting to turn and come to find out that I was correct. He calls my brother "gyro"--short for gyroscope, as he likes to tease him about his sense of direction too. I will admit that I can't find my way around Venice (Italy) as I find their winding streets impenetrable. But give me Rome, New York, or Paris and I am your girl!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Horrible. Horrible. I am so bad at directions that if I say: "I am always wrong, so I think it's this way, so let's go that way," I'm STILL WRONG. Maps, I can read them, and direct people just fine, but it doesn't translate spatially, somehow. In hotels? I am ALWAYS wrong, and now consciously figure out which way to turn and try to remember that (toward the fire extinguisher, or away from the staircase sign) , otherwise, it doesn't matter how many times I try it, I'm wrong. It kind of bothers me. I have good instincts about other things, but dead reckoning somehow passed me by. You and me, sister Jenn. Can you imagine us together?
JENN: Oh, wow, you are my people, Hank! I am ALWAYS WRONG, too. Scenic route, we're definitely taking the scenic route.
INGRID THOFT: Stick with me, Jenn and Hank. I have a stellar sense of direction. I credit my father, who was excellent at navigating, too. I’m great with maps, GPS, and, essentially, just knowing if A is over here, and K is over there, G will be here. During the Phoenix Bouchercon, Chevy Stevens and Carla Buckley nicknamed me Head Goose; they knew if they fell into formation behind me, they’d arrive at their desired destination. The one place that throws me off my game? A wooded town not far from Seattle on the other side of Lake Washington. My hubby’s office is there, and I think it’s the universe’s way of keeping me humble!
JENN: I'll fall in line with you anytime, Head Goose! LOL - that's adorable!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm in the good sense of direction camp, although perhaps not so well-developed as Ingrid's! I only just got a smartphone in 2015, so before then, all my navigating was done with maps and bushwhacking. Can you see the sun and shadows? Okay, you have east and west, and from that north and south. If you have a map in your head of the major roads in your area- the county highway and the Turnpike, say - then you aim yourself toward one of those. I guess the important part of all that is "map in your head."
JENN: Yeah, you lost me at "map in your head". I, too, got a smart phone in 2015 and it's been helpful, when I choose to believe the GPS, which for some reason I don't, so we spend a lot of time doing "legal U-turns" and "recalibrating routes".
JULIA: The one place my directional sense failed me completely? Driving around Seattle. Having lived in Maine for nearly all my adult life, with the Atlantic to the east and New Hampshire's White mountains to the west, I kept getting turned around between the Pacific and the Cascade range. "Water is East!" my brain insisted. "Mountains are West!" I was like a bird without magnetism, flapping fruitlessly in circles.
HALLIE EPHRON: Oh well, Seattle is impossible. Weren't the streets on those 'hills' deliberately routed so the families who 'ruled' them didn't have to drive through each other's neighborhoods? And Venice! When we were there the vaporettos were on strike and we had to walk everywhere. Often in circles (haven't we been on this bridge before?)
I used to have a great sense of direction but now I'm like Hank. Always exactly wrong, and even when I turned it around and go the opposite way of what I think, I'm wrong. It all began at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. It feels to me as if it's on the SOUTH side of 42nd St and I orient everything that way. Now, even when I read a map, I get it upside down and backwards.
JENN: Okay, then, if we're ever in Seattle, Head Goose is in charge!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I like maps. I can usually read maps without having to hold them upside down! And I have usually prided myself on my sense of direction, especially after wandering my way around London with nothing but an A to Z (That's pronounced "A to Zed", by the way) for years. But I've had a couple of major failures. There was the time I hired a car at Heathrow and then circumnavigated the airport for TWO hours trying to get on the road to Henley. That I blame entirely on the stupid SatNav and the lack of an actual paper map. Once I found a place to stop (not easy on English roads), turned off the SatNav, and bought a proper map, I made it to Henley in half a hour.
But then there was last year in London, which I can blame on nothing but myself. I'd convinced a long-suffering friend to meet me for dinner at a place I wanted to try, in a part of London I don't know well at all. I was turned around from the minute I got off the bus. Even with Google Maps on my phone, I somehow managed to walk miles in the wrong direction. Around and around in circles, three more buses (two of them going in the wrong direction) later, I finally reached the restaurant, thirty minutes late. Maybe that was my Grand Hyatt moment, and I'll be confused from now on!
JENN: I opted not to drive in London, Debs, so I am in awe of you!
RHYS BOWEN: I have a good sense of direction but I'm married to a man with zero. We're driving through Phoenix which is completely on a grid and I say, "We go north on 24th Street" and he says "Which way is North?" and I say..."See that mountain? It's called NORTH MOUNTAIN. Does that give you a clue?"
But I have a Venice story: which I was a teenager my parents used to rent a little villa outside Venice. They'd drive onto the island, give me and my brother some money and say "See you at five o'clock." And we'd spend all day wandering the streets. So I knew them well. Years later I took my oldest daughter back. We started to walk around the city and suddenly I'd say, "Wait. If we go through that alleyway and cut behind that church we should find ourselves.... Yes! Short cut to Rialto." It all came back to me.
JENN: I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out the Phoenix grid, Rhys. One year, maybe two? Ugh.
What about you, Readers? How's your navigational system or more precisely your entorhinal cortex?
Oh, Jenn, I am exactly the same way.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in California, John [who can find his way around anywhere, even if he’s never even been there before] would always tell me things like, “Go toward the mountains,” or “Go east.” I would look at him in total panic and say, “Which way is toward the mountains?” or “How do I know if I’m going east?” My brain understands the words, but my sense of directionality can barely function with “Turn right” or “At the traffic light, turn left.”
My total lack of directional sense is legendary in my family. They can all figure out how to get wherever they want to go while I can get myself lost [no joke] walking around the block . . . .
Oh, Joan, you are my people. I suppose the only upside is that I manage to make friends wherever I go because I need so much help with directions.
DeleteYes, go TOWARD the mountains would work in SoCal if you could SEE them. I grew up there and always oriented toward the ocean... always west. Only now the ocean is always East. Unless you're in Chatham.
DeleteI lived in Long Beach. There the ocean is always south. And it was a couple of years before I ever saw mountains! Or Catalina
DeleteI am a person who honestly has to think about which is left and which is right, so my sense of direction in the wider world is completely non-functional. My husband, who had a great sense of direction, used to test me by stopping at an intersection and asking me which way I thought we should go. I'd do my very best to figure it out, give him my answer, and he'd do the exact opposite. He was always right. Is it any wonder that I love maps, and cities with predictable north/south grids? Once they started putting compasses in cars it got easier, but if you ever want to rid yourself of me, just turn me loose in the woods with no navigational equipment. You'll never see me again.
ReplyDeleteGigi - me, too! Left Right North South - none of that is intuitive for me. It’s maddening!
DeleteI'm good at North South East West,faultless at dorsal and ventral, distal and proximal, cephalic and caudal, but right and left? I have to look at my hands first, then remember which one I write with. I am hopeless.
DeleteNot knowing my right from my left is one reason I dropped out of band--the other being that summer band met at 7 am. Knowing my right from my left at 7 am? Total non-starter in this night owl's world. I did, however, fit into theatre perfectly: everything happens after dark, and I could, as the director, sit out in the audience and tell the actor, "Go left" while pointing to my right with absolute ease and confidence.
DeleteNorth is always up, right? :-)
DeleteAlways.
DeleteMy first grade teacher (65 years ago) told me "When you turn around, your right and your left hands switch places." What was that song, "never knowing my right from my left"?
DeleteLike Ingrid, I have an excellent sense of direction. This innate ability certainly helped since I travelled alone so much for work and for pleasure. It's so weird that people can sense I know where I am in a strange city...I often get asked for directions by strangers and I can usually help them!
ReplyDeleteGrace - you are so lucky or entorhinally blessed :) I sincerely can’t imagine having on Target directional instincts.
DeleteI get asked the same, Grace - and sometime I can help, too.
DeleteSo do I, Grace!
ReplyDeletePut me in the super-entorhinal camp. My whole family loves maps and are good at navigating. If I have been someplace once, I remember it when I come back and know where to go. I'm so happy to finally have a name for the superpower! My ex-husband was useless in that regard, so we were compatible at least that way: I'd tell him which way to go and he'd go.
ReplyDeleteEdith - I love that you call it a super power - it is! You are like the X-Men to me!
DeleteI am a clueless navigator, except in a grocery store. When we recently visited Venice, the vaporettos were on a one-day strike. Our only transport to Murano was from Nova Fondamente, on the northern side of the city. Our concierge gave us precise walking instructions and we joined a few other tourists on the glassblower's island on a glorious, sunny, shirtsleeves day.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in a grocery like Krogers, where they move things around every week, it seems! Isn't that the worst?
DeleteMargaret - that sounds like a lovely day! I actually navigated Florence pretty well, probably because I was with my mom, who has an excellent sense of direction. I am a wonderful follower.
DeleteI wouldn't say it's my superpower, but I can usually figure out where I am, and how to get elsewhere from there. I'm almost always the navigator in the family, which is made easier when we drive my car, which has a built-in GPS.
ReplyDeleteBut they are not always right. Once in Nashville, in the early days of Mapquest, the turn-by-turns took me to the opposite side of the expressway from the hotel--which I could see in the distance, but had to navigate myself to, sans printed directions. Sometimes maps are an issue, because of orientation. If you're holding it upside down it really doesn't help too much. To say the least. Last year in Prague I couldn't make any sense of the map in relation to where I was, and kept walking through the same neighborhood over and over. Finally, some Americans from Michigan pointed out where I'd gone wrong.
From the early 90's to 2010, I drove, mostly alone, all over the country to give talks and sell books. Prior to GPS, so folded maps were the only tool. A friend, who drove her little truck from Annapolis about forty gigs a year, told me about a trick she used. She got her maps and planned her route, then she tape recorded herself giving precise turn-by-turns. So she would stop and start the tape deck in her truck to find her way. Did Mary Ellen invent GPS narration? I didn't do the recording, but when Mapquest came out I was already using their method, which made it a lot easier to figure out.
My kids, once we kept going around and around on Chicago's wet spaghetti-inspired interstate system, kept insisting we were lost. I reminded them that we did, in fact, know where we were. We just needed to find out how to get from there to my friend's house.
Julia, I have the same problem on the West Coast. It's completely backwards!
Jenn, this topic is ironic, in light of my dream last night. For some reason you, a veterinarian, called me, a new vet without a lot of experience, to help you with a crisis. However, you couldn't tell me where you were, or how to get there.
Karen - Ha! I love your wet spaghetti description! And your dream - how strangely prescient except the whole veterinary part. LOL.
DeleteWow, I love that tape recording idea. Brilliant. And remember AAA Trip-tiks?
DeleteI love AAA Trip-tiks! They break your trip down section by section, and also marked the rest stops, points of interest, etc.
DeleteThe one thing I don't like about GPS navigation is not knowing ahead of time what the next street or turn is. I'm someone who wants to picture the route ahead farther than a quarter mile.
I loved Trip-tiks!! Do they still do them?
DeleteI think they do, Debs. AAA still does a thriving business in some places.
DeleteJulia, my GPS gives me the next three moves on one side of the screen.
However, we took a long car trip, driving from San Diego to Cincinnati, a couple of years ago. We had an older GPS in the car, a Garmin device, and my cell phone GPS. They all had different information, and all gave us different directions. One device showed the altitude, which was fun when we drove through the mountains, and one showed the speed limit, which was annoying (for obvious reasons). None had all features.
Jenn, maybe the veterinarian thing was because of your series with dogs?
DeleteWho knows. Dreams are so weird.
Yes, they do still do Trip-tiks! When I did a solo drive to Indiana (from north of Boston) a few years ago, I got one. It marks the rest stops, for one thing, something my GPS has no idea about.
DeleteI have a good sense of direction, and I'm a map geek. It's taking me a while to get used to the GPS -- still don't like to blindly follow someone else's directions without having a map in my head. I'm always second guessing if it's the best route -- and it isn't always! Still, I have to admit the GPS is great for getting you out of an area you're not familiar with. I have a great sense of direction, but it's tough when you're driving and have to make instant decisions, especially at night in unfamiliar area. In those cases, I prefer to use the GPS, or better yet, be the navigator in the passenger seat.
ReplyDeleteMy ex has a terrible sense of direction (which he denies). We used to be able to tell the way to go by going the opposite of the way he thought it was. It was very helpful at Disney!
Mary - I’m with you and struggle with the GPS . I have trust issues, thus we recalibrate - a lot.
DeleteMary, my favorite GPS feature is "Go Home".
DeleteI have a horrible sense of direction. Give me a map and I am in good shape, I can read that and find my way, but if you expect me to remember which way to turn out of the elevator to get to my room - you will be waiting a while. ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL - Yes, especially in hotels, malls, and casinos - I need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs or something!
DeleteKristopher, congratulations on the Raven Award. So excited for you
DeleteThank you, Rhys. I still can't quite believe it.
DeleteYAAAAY Kristopher! SUCH an honor!
DeleteThank you, Hank.
DeleteLOVE the map that comes up on my cell and shows me where I am, and best of all, moves when I do. So getting somewhere feels like playing a video game where the object is to move my dot to wherever I'm going. And not get hit crossing the street or run into someone coming the other way.
ReplyDeleteUnless your me and for some inexplicable reason your dot is moving the wrong direction - I had four false starts walking to the CN Tower in Toronto. Now that I know Ingrid has a built in compass I’m dragging her with me!
Delete* you’re ( need coffee)
DeleteMy dot is ALWAYS moving in the wrong direction. Seriously.
DeleteHank, I think you've found the title for your memoir.
DeleteJulia, I just snorted and spewed tamales all over myself. Brilliant!
DeleteMy wife, when she has been somewhere once, can usually go straight to it again, but I find I have to go somewhere a few times, and concentrate on the directions, before I remember it. I guess I'm entorhinally challenged.
ReplyDeleteJim, I am the same way. I'm like that with meeting people, too. I have to meet someone five times before I can remember their name. I'll know the face but not the name unless it's something cool like Elspeth.
DeleteDo not ask me north from south, do not ask me left from right, but follow me anywhere. I am never lost, not even in the air and I can give you an exact eta. No idea how I do it. It just happens. Hubs is a pilot, we'll be flying over an area new to us and I'll say we'll be over the airport in a half hour. He'll zoom in on the Garmin - sure enough flight time 30 minutes. He claims my other car is a broom and I've done pre-flight. I just shrug.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever tell you to make a left - make it easy on yourself - go right, it's what I really meant.
LOL! I love it, Kait! That is an amazing gift you have.
DeleteI'm okay, in that I can usually tell where the rivers are in Pittsburgh: "The Allegheny is that way, so I want to turn right." But if I am on a deadline, I rely on GPS. Where I get tripped up is when I *think* I know where I'm going, but I don't really, and I try to be smarter than the lady in the computer. That never ends well.
ReplyDeleteNow The Hubby? You could spin that man in circles, drop him in a field, and he'll find his way to his destination. Must be all those years of land navigation training in the Army.
Mary/Liz
I'm with you, Mary. Landmarks are a HUGE help! Maybe we should take a class in land navigation.
DeleteAnd hey, doesn't it mean something to be ALWAYS wrong? That's not easy to do, ya know.
ReplyDeleteIt's a gift! LOL.
DeletePut me in the absolutely NO sense of direction category. My husband, on the other hand can find his way anywhere, anytime even if he's never been there. (He's an airline pilot with a prior career in the Coast Guard, lots of navigating by the stars, etc) We travel a fair amount internationally.. If I'm with him we go from point A to point B. When alone I like to say that I am taking the scenic route. Seriously, you can discover all manner of interesting things when you wander. I used to feel bad that I am so hopeless at navigation; now I rely on GPS and emphasize the benefits of "exploring". On the plus side I have an uncanny sense of time and temperature. If you want to know if you need to wear a coat when you leave the hotel I'm your gal.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a lot of pilots are gifted with natural directionality (is that even a word?). Maybe a class in aviation would help.
DeleteI have a decent sense of direction once I get familiar with a place. For a hotel, it just takes walking to my room. For a city, it takes driving around a little while.
ReplyDeleteI have found that having GPS on my phone is a good and a bad thing. I get where I want to go without getting lost. But I don't remember how I got there, so it takes me a little while longer to figure things out.
To really understand a city, I have to drive it. I never got super comfortable in Dallas because I was only driving in it once or twice in all the times I went when my brother lived there.
Julia, I'm with you about which way the ocean should be, just the opposite. When I was in Atlanta for work one time, I had the hardest time remembering that east was toward the coast and west was toward the rest of the country. It should be the other way around!
Right? It just becomes embedded in your consciousness.
DeleteAgreed! Growing up with the ocean to the east is hard to let go of - luckily, I'm in the desert now.
DeleteI like to think I have a good sense of direction and I love maps, paper maps that is. The one time I kept losing my sense of direction was in Key West, not sure why. I think I should go again and try to do better!
ReplyDeleteI'll come with you and help! :)
DeleteWe have British friends here in Florida. It drives them crazy if we give "Turn north at the next intersection" directions. They want to know if it's right or left. North and south do not compute.
ReplyDeleteRhys, you are a wonder!
Libby Dodd
I was a left or right gal for a long time. I get it.
DeleteReading the comments, I'm beginning to think it's not that men have a better sense of direction than women. It's that men are more likely to have been in military service, where they get training on how to find their way out of a paper bag!
ReplyDeleteMaybe navigation should be a part of high school life skills class.
DeleteNot in our family. My husband swears I have a map of the city embedded in my brain. It's probably true, after being in insurance sales for nine years.
DeleteJulia, with my husband's military service and training, he's excellent with directions.
DeleteMy big issue with the sat nav in the UK was that coming up to a roundabout, it would say, "Take exit 6 (or whatever)" but the exits aren't labeled and I could never figure out where to start counting!!! Why not say, "Take the A4 exit," or "Take the Oxford exit." Grrr.
ReplyDeleteThat's just mean to make you count and drive!
DeleteI have a really good sense of direction, and I *love*maps, atlases, etc. I could spend hours reading them, just for pleasure, and that probably contributed to my sense of direction. I've always lived in one CT town or another that's on Long Island Sound. It always puzzles me when someone who has also always lived near the Sound doesn't know that the water here is south!
ReplyDeleteDebRo
Exactly! I grew up in Niantic and then went to school in New Haven. The water was always "down there". LOL.
DeleteLost, or "exploring" nearly everywhere I go. GPS helps. I wish someone would make it for indoors.
ReplyDeleteOn one trip, a construction crew had taken down the signs by the freeway entrance, and it was too busy a street to stop to ask. I just took the exit, looked at signs on the highway, and exited and turned when we figured out we were wrong (of course we were, Mom and I were both challenged ;-) We've been watching the great-nieces and nephews for signs of our lostness or Dad's good navigation.
"Exploring" - I see what you did there. I like it!
DeleteI can get lost coming out of a store at the local mall--really! I always turn the wrong direction, and although the mall has been there for years, I still couldn't tell you where a particular store is located. The mall, to be clear, is set up in a circle, with four major entrances. Anyway, I don't know how I navigated before I got my first GPS. Even then, I printed out directions to a place that was unfamiliar, just to back up the GPS. Now I like the GPS on my phone because the directions are more specific than the one in the car. The worst part about all of this is that my husband of 42+ years thinks I'm lazy. He just doesn't understand that this is an inborn failing just like his problem with names--he insists on calling Sean Connery "Sheen" because he says he likes it better than way. GRR!!
ReplyDeleteMargie - that's hilarious! Your marriage sounds like a fun one.
DeleteMy sister takes the prize, as she was able to direct us to a home she had not seen in over 20 years -- and she was 4 when she had last visited. My late husband, on the other hand, could not point the direction to Mt. Rainier when seated in my parents dining room.
ReplyDeleteSeattle is not confusing!. Main roads almost always run north and south. Mountains on east salt water on west. All bets are off in winter when it is dark almost all the time.
I'm with you on Seattle, Coralee. And street address are so logical ... with in the first number(s) is the cross street nearest to the building address, e.g. 16351 NE 13th Place is between 163rd and 164th Ave NE. Loved living and driving there!
DeleteSomeday, I have to get to Seattle and give it a go. Just to see.
DeleteI've always had a fair sense of direction. I remember once, when I was probably 6 years old, that I got off the school bus and decided I wanted to go home. I simply started walking home which was probably two or so miles away. This was in Brooklyn, NY. I arrived safely and I don't remember anyone getting in trouble over it. I remember once on Yom Kippur when I was 9 or 10, I had thrown a fit over something and decided to walk. Just to walk to blow off steam. Finally, I was walking toward a neighborhood where we had lived in Brooklyn, having started in Rockaway, Queens NY. (About 20 miles or so away. to a friend's apartment.) I don't remember anyone getting in trouble for that. I've never driven a car legally. However for a bunch of years in my late forties and fifties, I rode a bicycle all over Bucks County, PA, where I live now. I loved those big books of street address maps which I used to get me anywhere. I like the map programs on smart phones. Yet, they are biased toward automotive transit and not walking or public transportation. I have been reminded of the need for humility as I have sometimes found myself dreadfully lost.
ReplyDeleteDavid, you sound like an adventurer. I love it. I used to love my spiral bound Thomas Map book. I have no sense of direction but I am rock solid with a map but not so much GPS or the Google navigator on my phone. Weird.
DeleteI have a terrible sense of direction, too. Leave a hotel to walk somewhere? I always go the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteSame, my friend.
DeleteMy worst experience of misdirection occurred a few years ago while camping in the interior of Algonquin Park. Tent by the water, of course, and thunder box back there in the woods. I'd already found it a few times in the daylight. Easy. Straight back from the campsite.
ReplyDeleteNight falls, nature calls. I take my flashlight and walk straight back into the woods. There's a a rough path of sorts. But somehow, I can't reach my destination. I keep walking, until....(my heart goes pitter pat) I see the light of a campsite straight ahead. But there's no other campsite on this part of the lake. Then I hear my partner calling out to me. I have made a complete 180 and am back at the campsite. Brrrr!
So I try again. Because, of course, I know how to walk in a straight line. In a minute, I'm again back at the campsite. Wasn't there a Twilight Zone episode like that?
At this point I just duck behind the nearest tree to deal with nature.
(Jenn, it's a good thing you didn't go into The Path when you were in Toronto. You'd still be there.)
The Path? Even the name strikes terror! Glad you managed your camping trip! The woods at night can turn around even the best navigator.
DeleteI'm kind of hit and miss with direction. If I've been somewhere a couple of times, I am decent at finding my way around. In Key West, Lucy, I became good at navigating Old Town, but I think it helped that I was walking all the time. I do better with landmarks when taking or giving directions. Rhys, I laughed when you said your husband asked which way was north. I so sympathize with him. There was a meme I saw on FB that expresses the way I feel (and maybe the way John feels). It states, "Don't confuse me with words like north or east when giving me directions." Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteLandmarks! Growing up back East, I miss the old "Take a left at the Ralston House" type of directions, never mind that the "Ralston House" had been gone for fifty years, you still knew to take a left there! LOL.
DeleteI used to be able to drive cross-country with a good old fashioned Rand McNally (never made it overseas...yet). Now I'm best buds with my GPS, until that non-Siri voice tells me, "Proceed west..." NOT helpful!
ReplyDeleteHotel hallways and shopping malls are another matter entirely...I ALWAYS go the wrong way.
I don't go to the mall if I can avoid it. If I have to go, I bring Hooligan 2 who is a homing pigeon.
DeleteI think you should have told Kate that you just wanted more ice for the Bloody Mary's! :) But if she insists that you need to go into the elevator then ok go ahead and follow her....
ReplyDeleteLOL! I like the way you think!
DeleteI have a GREAT sense of direction. Except when I don't. I'm either like a homing pigeon or hopelessly lost. Most of the times it's the former. In fact, the only person who has a better sense of direction than me is my husband. But one city that eludes me is a city I've spent a lot of time in: New Orleans. I never have any idea what direction anything is in. I usually end up saying, "Go toward the river" or "Go away from the river." "Head uptown." "Head downtown."
ReplyDeleteNOLA is a mystery to me - Ha! See what I did there? But it's okay because everywhere you turn there is something wonderful or scary or hilarious or creepy...well, you get the idea.
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