Sunday, September 6, 2009

Turn right and continue to the motorway!

So when I got to Utah, I decided to use part of a walmart giftcard on a GPS system, because I don't do well with directions. Even though apparently Utah is way easy to navigate through (which, it is not!), I thought this was a worthy idea. Well, it has gotten me very lost two times. I will ignore the fact it's because I can't type in the right address (it's really hard, ok?). The first time, it wasn't too tragic, and I was able to get to my real destination without much trouble. But yesterday...yeah that's a different story.

Around 5:30, I left to go and see a little sister and mom of one of my friends (ok--my ex-boyfriend's. But his sister and I are friends, and his mom is awesome, and they invited me over, so that's not weird, right?). So they gave me their address, I thought I typed it into my GPS correct, but it started taking me to Orem. I thought this was a little weird, but I decided to have faith that I wasn't being led astray. Well eventually I see a church building that I really thought I always saw when I had been to this house a few times in the past. Of course, I had forgotten that Utah has a church building on every corner. And they all look the same. Anyways, so I pull up to where the GPS took me, and I can't seem to find the address. So I call the mom, and she informs me that they live on 300 S, not 300 N. Greattttt. So I decide to rewrite the directions into my GPS, and they were the correct ones this time. Little did I know that the GPS didn't just know that I really haven't driven on a freeway and it should avoid these at all costs. Especially not in Utah. So I'm driving along, listening to some great music, and all the sudden I hear the dreaded words come from the British voice on my GPS
Turn right and continue to the motorway!
Now, I just feel grateful that I remember my brother's GPS always saying this before we got on the freeway. But still, even with that knowledge, I start freaking out. Now that I think about it, I could I have easily driven back to Provo and not followed the directions of the GPS, but I guess I felt obligated to believe the British voice. But, nonetheless, I go along the way and just pray I don't die. And then I remember my sister, Diana, telling me about when she drove on the freeway, and how she had to talk herself through it to calm herself down. So I use her technique, and lo and behold, it worked! But still, you better believe I was completely white-knuckled by the time I turned off on the exit to Provo. But it wasn't over yet. I had no idea what was going on, but somehow I got on another freeway. And I almost cried.

But finally, I made it to my destination. An hour after I left. To a place that was five minutes away from my apartment. Maybe I should have realized something was wrong when I was in Orem, not Provo, even though I knew very well that these people lived in Provo. Anyways, I survived my first time driving on the Utah highways. And I really don't want to do it again! At least I survived to tell this tale.

Oh, and I got called to be a visiting teaching supervisor. Yay!

3 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Congrats on the new calling! GPS sort of scares me.

Mars said...

I'm really bad with directions here in Arizona. Even though I have lived here for 4 years now. My bf makes fun of me. But I get turned around easily. For the most part I know where I am going but when I follow directions from like mapquest...thats always when I get lost. I've decided GPS & Mapquest do more harm than they do good haha. It's easier to type it in, look at the map, & go your own way. I'm glad you survived! I don't mind driving on the freeway but in UT...ppl are CRAZY DRIVERS! And UT streets are confusing. I got lost there all the time haha. Yay for being called as VT Supervisor! I was that once & loved it! Good luck!

Lindsay said...

That's it- should have gotten me that snuggie ;) haha kiddin

oh booya that's a good calling- not hard at all :) haha You know how I roll...