Weekend Assignment #298: Lost

"You're Lost!"

I think that is one of my favorite lines in Vacation. The delivery, the look on Aunt Edna's face, it's perfect. I can see that really coming from the backseat on a long journey, especially from an old, grumpy lady like Aunt Edna.

Anyway, Karen wants us to dig up terrible memories of being lost. It hurts to think about it.


Weekend Assignment: #298: Do you often get lost, trying to get someplace new? Do you print out a map, or just wing it? And when you do have trouble finding your way, is it an annoyance or an adventure?

Okay, I'm teasing Karen a little bit. It's all in good fun for the Christmas Season!

We try to use Mapquest, Google Maps, or my iPhone to make sure we don't get lost, but sometimes it still happens. Especially when we go into the city. I am not a city person at all. I was born and raised out in the suburbs. Okay, technically I was born in Chicago, but I think it was on the outskirts, barely in Chicago at all. No, I don't remember what hospital, I was just born, geez.

It is not an adventure for me. Not one bit. Just ask Jenn. I get stressed going into the city and get worse if we have trouble finding where we need to go, or where the ramp to the expressway is to get us back to our safe suburbs. I tend to get snippy and cranky when we get turned around, I don't know why. Like Jenn tells me, it's not like we are going to get stuck there and never find our way home, or anything. But, when I'm in a position like that I don't think rationally. I start picture us living out of the car and drinking anti-freeze to survive. It's not pretty.

Have I told you our Hawaii story? (Sorry, Jenn.) Back in 2000 we went to Maui for our anniversary. It was a great time, for the most part. We took a bike tour down the Haleakala volcano, it was really cool up there, in more ways than one. We decided on the bike tour that allowed you to go down on your own rather than going down in one big group. Everything was fine as we cruised down the mountain with the brakes on the whole way. At one point we stopped because I thought we were going the wrong way. Jenn took out the map and said we were going the right way, so we continued. Eventually we were in the middle of nowhere, again we stopped. Long story short, Jenn had the wrong map. We were heading to a completely different bike place. Not good. The next 90 minutes were not pretty, so I won't repeat it here.

So, no, I don't find being lost an adventure. I'm too high strung.

Extra Credit: Is your town or city easy to get lost in?

The town I live in is pretty easy to navigate, I think. Jenn grew up in Chicago, so she doesn't like how you have no point of reference from one town to the next like you do in the city. But, she has grown used to it. Or, at least she tolerates it.