And I Get Lost Again

I've developed a habit of posting most of my stories from getting lost. Not all of them, because if I posted all of them I wouldn't post much else. I'm not sure if this really counts as being lost, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

Today I went to interview for a possible summer job in Indianapolis. The woman I was emailing offered to give me more detailed directions, but upon checking Google Maps it looked pretty easy to find. All I had to do was drive toward home, get off at a different exit, and stay on that street until I found the relevant office. Just to be safe, I left with ten minutes of buffer room in case I somehow managed to get lost.

I made it all the way to the desired street without event. As the checkered flag indicating my goal on Janet (my GPS) drew nigh, I scanned both sides of the street for any signs of the office. I couldn't find it. I turned around, and drove back the way I had come until I had once more passed Janet's flag. I still didn't see it. So I turned around again. And still didn't find it.

Convinced that turning around and driving past the alleged location once more wouldn't be very helpful, I pulled over in a parking lot to get out the business card of the woman I had been emailing, only to discover that I had left it in my dorm room. I called my mom, and she was kind enough to look up the location on Google Maps again. We pin-pointed the block on which the place should have been, and she tried to get me there that way. I still wasn't seeing anything.

My ever-helpful mother then checked online to find a phone number for me to call. She couldn't find the person I had talked to, but she did find a number for me to try. I called the number, and a friendly man answered it. He was happy to help me find the office. After describing my location, he found the place where he thought I was on Google Maps and then instructed me to drive north. I did so. He named places and streets I should be passing, but I didn't see any of them.

Apparently I was supposed to have headed south rather than north, so I turned around yet again. A few minutes later, I finally found the office thanks to the kind man. It wasn't labeled. It was in a warehouse complex, but the company name wasn't on the sign by the road. Nor was the name on the building itself. There was a pleasant woman sitting outside eating lunch, and she confirmed that the building I had pulled up to was in fact the correct one.

In the end, I was twenty minutes late. My buffer time had not been sufficient. I somehow managed to be lost on the same mile-long stretch of road for a half hour. Fortunately, the interviewers didn't seem too upset by the delay. The interview went well, so hopefully I get the job. I should know sometime next week.