[brains]

[wispfox]

I _hate_ getting lost. More, I hate getting lost when I'm already running late.

The degree to which this is true is evidenced by the fact that, if I'm both running late and lost - especially if I'm alone in the car - I am almost certainly going to end up in tears at some point.

I've determined that driving in Boston makes getting lost both worse and easier to do. I already knew I had reason to avoid driving in Boston; now I'm just having it proven to myself.

On the plus side, the reason I'm driving in Boston - training for volunteering at The Network/La Red - is going well. I'm actively enjoying myself, even though it's periodically a bit of a brain fuck (unsurprisingly, mind). Not sure at this point if I'll yet be ready for crisis hotline work by the end of training (which is what I'm aiming for, since it'll help with getting into the school I want to attend), but I've got 2.5 years until I wander the country, so it's not an immediate rush. Thankfully.

Tired. Sleep now.

But yeah. Hate getting lost. At least last weekend, I could just leave ridiculously early and leave time for getting lost. Not so easy when leaving from work, which is both further away and not as easy to leave excessive amounts of time open for (I gave myself 2 hours on Sat morning; it turns out it's only 30 minutes away from home, but I took 1.5 hours to get there on Saturday). But I definitely need to leave at 5, not 5:30, on Tuesday. And hopefully not get lost; I'm not sure how well I'll succeed, as I'm not completely sure what I need to do in order to avoid it.

Comments

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

If I'm lost and late, I'm likely to end up screaming and in tears.  I get easily frustrated when I'm late, because I hate being late.

If I'm lost but I'm nowhere near late, mostly I'm just wildly fascinated.  This is because I love maps to distraction.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

The screaming part, no. But the tears, yes, since frustration is the most consistent way to get me in tears. And yes, I also hate being late...

I'm still stressed if not late, but I can cope because I'm not also trying to hurry.

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

I onoce spent a good hour in downtown - not total driving, just downtown - trying to get to South Station to pick rosefox up.  The construction was such that you could only get to SS by taking 93N.  I'm pretty sure of this, since I'd driven on every other road there by that time.  Fuck.

[volta]

Garmin released a new series of GPS not too long ago, so the previous generation can be had pretty cheap these days. Something like the Garmin Quest ($370 at amazon including shipping and routable street map software) could go a long way to making sure you do not get lost on your way to new places.

A routing GPS is also great for those times when you just want to drive to get away, and find yourself in the middle of nowhere and need to get home. Not that anything like that ever happens to me. :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

GPS: Well, I'm intending to get myself a treo 650, which can coordinate with some GPS recievers, when I get back from .au and have a bit of spare money (I'll be getting the reciever, as well). I normally do a reasonable job of avoiding the problem, and having extra time, though; not so last night.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Boston's streets were laid out by drunk cows.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

Here here!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

One-way drunk cows!

[motyl.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

*adds to quotes file*

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Hee. :)

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah; I share your frustration over Boston and getting lost in general. Last Saturday I spent 2.5 hours in Boston finding something that should have taken 45 minutes. On Sunday it was another 3 hours of seeing different roads multiple times, includine a nice unnecessary loop through heavy construction (and tolls) in the middle of town. Monday morning was 1 3/4 hours finding something that was originally 2 miles away from the hotel (if you head south instead of North, Galen switches to Court, and intersects with Beacon after a 5-way intersection; if you head north instead of south, Galen switches to Court, and intesects with N. Beacon at a 5-way intersection.)

I find it absolutely infuriating that Boston finds it unnecessary to mark major arterials. With the traffic density again this means that you only figure out where you are once all reasonable landmarks have been passed, and the map page you were working on may well not be the one you're now driving on. I can only imagine that this was intended to slow down invading armies.

The traffic here is also so dense that one usually won't be able to decide which turn to make until after having gone through the intersection.

Can you make practice runs over the weekend? I find that I need multiple successful runs to over-write the unsuccessful ones (and that the early unsuccessful ones seem to strengthen when I'm tired, even after *many* successful ones).

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

if you head south instead of North, Galen switches to Court, and intersects with Beacon after a 5-way intersection; if you head north instead of south, Galen switches to Court, and intesects with N. Beacon at a 5-way intersection.

Buh...

The traffic here is also so dense that one usually won't be able to decide which turn to make until after having gone through the intersection.

Yep... and the damn one-ways suck, since they tend to be in the few parts of Boston whose streets _are_ a grid.

Practice runs, not so much. I've training all weekend...

It'll help to leave earlier, though, because then I won't start _out_ running late. I do need to figure out what I did wrong, though...

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

I'm a total nerd about directions. I write down everything, including landmarks. Would it be possible to audio-record (I almost wrote tape-record, but I know nobody uses those any more) yourself as you drive there successfully, explaining how to get there?

My impression of Boston is that nothing is marked. I have trouble finding street signs, and there is no light at night to mark subway stops.

I like living in a city that's easy to get around in!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I actually do have a tape recorder. :)

And... if I've driven there successfully, I write down what information I need, and am ok to follow those until I get it well enough to not need them. The problem is if I got all turned around, I don't _know_ the direct way to do it. This is what happened last night.

Very little is marked, indeed. It's annoying.

[enderfem.livejournal.com]

I do the exact same thing, although like ladytabitha, sometimes I yell about it too. I think everyone has one or two things that will always set them off like that, and for me, it is getting lost. HATE.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I think everyone has one or two things that will always set them off like that, and for me, it is getting lost.

Yep. Especially if running late, yes?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

hoopycat drove me from Rochester, NY, to Boston. The journey was smooth and easy right up until we entered the greater Boston area. Then, even armed with his GPS computer, we got lost and pissed off. The last 20 minutes of the journey were the worst.