7.19.2007

east to west... directional challenges

i grew up in new jersey. bring on the big hair and mall jokes… like i haven’t heard it before. i now live in a state that looks remarkably like jersey – in shape… if you take the mirror image and enlarge it by about a thousand percent, and leave the same amount of people... oh, and move it to the other coast (or, the LEFT coast, as my mother likes to call it). pretty much the same thing, right?

so, having grown up with the ocean to the east, my instinct is that when going inland, one is traveling west. doesn’t work out here. every time someone asks me directions that involve east/west, i conjure up a map-like picture in my mind with land and an ocean - but i don't have the standard n-s-e-w cross on my imaginary map in my head. i just have the instinct that inland is west. so, when i respond to the question about directions, here is how my response sounds: "go west. no east. no... um, hang on... hubby! which way do they go? no, they need to go away from the ocean. that's east, right?". then i have to listen to him chuckle at me, or roll his eyes (yes, i can hear him rolling his eyes).

1 comment:

Tahoe said...

The biggest thing I had to adjust to since being out here on the "left coast" is when giving people directions, I actually have to know the NAME of the exit as opposed to "just take exit 28 and go right." :-) I am much better at remembering numbers than names.