A Journal of Sorts

Monday, 22 March 1999

Male navigation

My feelings are hurt anyway.

At this point, I have two more interviews scheduled. One of them is downtown and I'm not looking forward to that hassle -- the traffic, the expensive parking, the DISTANCE from here. I'm thinking that I might just cancel that one; if I'm dreading the inconvenience of the interview so much, with my luck, I'd get the job and have to deal with it every day. I shouldn't waste my time or theirs with an interview for a job that I really don't want. Of course, for enough money, (I'm sort of a whore when it comes to salary) I might be able to deal with the romance of commuting. In any event, I should decide soon; the interview is Wednesday morning. The other is in Richardson, not exactly convenient, but probably only about half an hour away.

We went to Fort Worth to visit Tom's dad in the hospital. He had a knee replacement done late last week and is recovering nicely. Tom took the camera and took pictures of his dad's bandaged knee. His dad seemed to be tiring quickly, so we left, but not before we got directions to a good hamburger joint from Mom.

She was right. The place was great! Even Jason was raving over how good his burger was. I had a Philly cheese steak and Tom had some sort of chicken thing. They had a juke box and a smoking section. For some reason, while I was on the phone trying to call Teresa, Jason gathered all the ash trays in the place and stacked them neatly on one of the tables. I wondered why everyone was giving me that, "woman, can't you control your children?" look (with offspring like Jason, I've become quite familiar with that look over the years.) until Tom pointed out Jason's handiwork to me.

On the way back, we had an episode of male navigation. Tom was driving back the way we had come - the opposite direction of where we were headed.

      C - "Henderson should take us back to the highway."
      T - "I'm not sure there is an entrance ramp there."
      C - "What are you doing, driving all the way back to 8th St.?"
      T - "If you go back the way you KNOW you can get on the highway, it can be much easier."

So we drove back to 8th St. and made our turn at the sure-fire place to be able to get on the east bound interstate. When we reached I-30, the entire area was under construction and the road that might have been a service road to the east bound lanes was simply not there. We drove across the bridge to the west bound side.

      T - "Now what do I do?"
      C - "Turn right and go back to Henderson?"
      T - (going straight for another few blocks) "Oh Lancaster, this should take us to the highway."
      C - (laughing)
      T - "See, there's a sign, I-30 east bound that way." (as he turns on Henderson)
      C - (laughing hysterically) "What a great idea! Why didn't I think to take Henderson to the interstate?"
      T - "This isn't Henderson."
      C - (laughing even more hysterically)
      T - "I wasn't lost. I was just bewildered."

      Jason - "I don't get it. What's so funny?"