Three Hours Of My Life That I'll Never Get Back

“Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.” – Henry Miller

I certainly lost myself today, although not in the way Henry Miller is speaking of in his quote.  No, I actually got physically lost.  More than once.  On my way to a job interview.  Yes, unfortunately, you did read that correctly. 

You see, I am seriously directionally challenged.  I need a GPS to find my way to just about any location, no matter how far or near, unless I’ve been there a million times before.  Hubby and I have a rule.  If we are together and not sure which way to turn, he will turn in the opposite direction of what I feel is the correct way.  It works every time.  Sadly, I’m not joking.

I am a suburbanite.  I grew up in the suburbs and have never lived downtown (Chicago).  I visit downtown fairly frequently but almost never am the driver.  In my defense, I have gone downtown on more than one occasion alone and have successfully found my way.  Unfortunately, today was not one of those occasions.

Embarrassingly enough, today I had printed map-quest directions and my GPS.  Still, no luck.

The map-quest directions and the GPS told me to turn left onto a side street.  This seemed odd to me, as the address was on a major street.  I just figured the building must be on the corner of the two streets.  Nope.  I still have no clue why the directions guided me down that street.  It was nowhere near my destination.

Once I finally got back onto the major street, headed in the right direction, I was confronted with a detour due to road construction.  I followed the detour, got a little turned around, but got back onto the right track pretty quickly.

I found the correct block that my destination should have been on, based on the addresses of the buildings there, but never did see the address I had been given.  I figured I just missed it since I was also trying to navigate downtown traffic at the time and went looking for a parking garage.

There were none in the immediate vicinity and many unfamiliar one-way streets before I found one.  It seemed like I was only a few blocks away so I pulled in and started walking.  In the meantime, I had called and left two voice mails for my contact person but they had not been returned.  

I was excited about this interview.  I got to dress up in some of my fun professional clothes, take a nice long drive on the expressway with my iPod on, put on make-up, jewelry and do my hair.  I was confident that the interview would go well as I am more than qualified for the job.  I felt like I might almost regain the workforce and once again be a productive member of society. 

I walked and walked and walked.  I stopped to ask directions three times.  By the time I was a half an hour late for my appointment and still hadn’t heard from my contact person, I figured I had just blown it and headed back to the parking garage.

I walked and walked and walked.  I couldn’t find the freakin’ parking garage!  By this point, my feet are killing me, because I was wearing my fabulous boots with fabulous heels and I’m freezing!  I stopped to ask for directions to the garage and thank goodness, this time the person I asked actually knew what she was talking about.

I wanted to hug my car when I finally got there.  I was just happy to be able to sit down and extatic that my car wasn’t forever lost.  

About halfway home, my contact person returned my call.  She hadn’t been in the office (?) but graciously agreed to have me do a phone interview instead.  She was extremely understanding, given the circumstances.  I felt like a complete moron.  Oh, and the reason I didn’t see the address?  It was under construction and there was a huge scaffolding covering the front of the building…good to know.

It turns out there are no jobs for me right now anyway.  This was a staffing firm and the only position they have available right now is located about 40 miles away from my house and during rush hour traffic would be about an hour and a half drive each way.  They’ll keep my resume on file for any future openings in my area.  Right.  Would you? 

So, it was a complete waste of most of my day and not the productive interview and possible job opportunity that I thought it would be.  I’m taking this all as a sign that I was headed in the wrong direction all along.

Thanks for stopping by!