So, I had errands to run this morning, a big shopping trip to a big-box store down by the freeway overpass.

It didn’t start out well. I was on my way to grab a cup of coffee when I saw a bus approaching, and decided just to hop right on, never mind the coffee for now. It was at least four blocks before I realized I was on the bus going in the wrong direction, which just goes to show that coffee first is a good instinct to follow.

Anyway, when I finally got off the bus and back on the right bus and off the bus again, I wasn’t feeling very confident about my navigational abilities.

The directions I got off the internet said to head right on Harrison, but I was pretty sure I needed to go left. I even made an ‘L’ with my thumb and forefinger to make sure left meant what I thought it meant. Yup: lllllleft. Left toward the freeway. I had a really good feeling about left.

But the directions from the internet said right, and without coffee I wasn’t sure how trustworthy my instincts could be. I very nearly asked an older man, who was wheeling a grocery cart full of rags through the morning fog, what direction 14th street was in. (That’s where I was headed: 14th and Harrison). I even picked my out accent (I like to pretend I’m from someplace else when I ask for directions): a sort of Julia Child-ish nasally thing, maybe from Europe, maybe not. I figured I had a cold, so it’d sound convincing.

But then I looked up, and saw that Harrison St. actually ended on the corner where I was. So there was no going right. Llllleft it was. Left on Harrison and then left again on 14th, where, sure enough, I found my big box store.

So there, Google maps.