In Which I Become Hopelessly Lost (Again) and Attend Homecoming

Yesterday was the homecoming dance. I hate dances. I really do. But for some reason I decided to try one again this year. For the first time in five years I wore a dress in public. For the first time in my life I wore high heels. Most surprising of all, I actually liked my dress. It was about as Maria-ish as a dress can be. On more than one occasion, I was told that I looked like a woodland fairy or a nymph.

I wouldn't even have considered going if it hadn't been for the group I went with. It included eighteen delightful people. I was one of the many drivers getting us all to dinner, but if I had known what getting there would involve, I would never have agreed to drive. I didn't even read the directions I was given before we left. I entrusted them to my front seat passenger and planned on following the person who knew where she was going. We lost said person when we got on the highway. I did not know we were going to drive on a highway. As you already know, I hate highways. Then we got onto another highway. That other highway was I-71 (which fortunately was not as frightening as it was when I had my temps). Then we got onto a smallish highway-esque road. All three had plenty of traffic. I was not happy at all. Once we finally got off the highways, we caught back up to the front driver. We promptly lost her once more when she decided to speed through a yellow light. After this, we got completely lost. The people following us also got lost. We found ourselves about to get onto I-71 again, but just in time we turned onto a narrow side street and got back on track. Eventually we arrived at our dinner destination. Dinner was a lot of fun.

On the way back, we resolved to drive closer together, and the leader promised to drive as though she was being followed by clueless people. Before we even left the parking lot, we lost one of the four cars in our caravan. Once we were all on the highway, we got off at the wrong exit and were lost again. We pulled over at what turned out to be a school of some sort with an awesome playground. It was castle-themed and included a dragon and a ship. Most of us got out and played on the playground while the head of the caravan called her dad and asked for direction. I declared myself captain of the ship, but did not manage to enlist many crew members before we departed.

Once we left, we had to take a detour to find a bathroom. After we left the Gold Star where we stopped, I got separated from the other two cars and was lost again. Several roads later, we somehow ended up behind the other two cars without knowing it. When they stopped to wait for us, we passed them. We couldn't really turn around very easily, but at that point they discovered that we were on North Bend Road and we figured that we could get to the school easily enough from there.

We were wrong. We wound up being moderately lost and debating whether or not we should leave our path and pursue a new one that we thought we recognized. We turned around and returned to the place we thought we knew, and eventually one of my passengers recognized where we were even in the darkness. In the end, we found our way to the school. We arrived just in time to be admitted to the dance.

For the entire duration of the ride to and from Buca di Beppos or wherever we ate, I was quite angry and on the verge of panic. We were driving in the dark on highways, people kept cutting me off (I nearly cussed a few of these drivers out), I was forced to do some risky driving to keep up with everyone, and there were a few other things that made me less than happy. Surprisingly, the fact that we were lost wasn't as terrifying as it has been in the past; I've gotten so used to it that I enjoy it as an adventure, so long as I have passengers with me. When I get angry while driving I just become a source of amusement to my passengers which in turn calms me down. When I'm lost and alone, I just panic. It also helped that most of the songs that came up when I pushed shuffle on my ipod were perfect for the situation. During the long stretch of time we spent driving with uncertainty down what was supposed to be North Bend (I'm not confident that it really was North Bend), The Long and Winding Road played, and we all had to laugh at the correlation between the title and our current predicament.

Homecoming itself wasn't that great. In fact, it was decidedly not great. That's all I have to say on the matter. I left early, and for the ride home I rolled down all my windows and put one of my favorite songs on repeat (it fits pretty much every mood I have, and it was particularly fitting at the time). That final drive was wonderfully refreshing, especially in contrast to my driving adventures earlier in the day.