The following is a cautionary tale about over dependence on technology. Let me preface by saying that I have a very good sense of orientation. I consistently got high marks in orientation class (ie. getting dropped out in the middle of the wilderness with a topo map, a compass, and a destination to get to). During my canoeing final exam which involved crossing a lake and reaching a pre-determined location, a sneak storm came up while we were in the middle of the lake. With visibility being nil, I was still able to steer my team to safety. Not only were we the first to get across the lake, we also landed where we were supposed to. So, in short, I can normally get to where I need to go.

I had an interview in New Westminster this morning. How I came by this interview is a worthy sidebar, so let me digress for a moment. Craigslist is used heavily in the Vancouver area, so I posted a brief ‘work wanted’ ad there, giving some qualifications, but no personal information. I got five replies to my ad, four of which were obviously legit and merited my sending a complete resumé. One such response garnered me an interview within ten minutes of my sending my resumé!

The interview was situated in a building that houses a Skytrain terminal, so the obvious thing would have been to take public transportation. But I haven’t used public transit here yet and it seems quite complicated, would have had to count on there being parking at the park ‘n ride, and determined that getting to the nearest park ‘n ride would take nearly as long as just driving to the interview site. I knew that the recent closure of the Pattulo Bridge would mean heavy traffic, so I didn’t trust either my GPS or Google when they told me it would take a half hour to get to the interview site. Moreover, I wanted to listen to President Obama’s inaugural speech, which I could do in the car, so I left home around twenty to nine.

The drive went very smoothly, if slowly in parts, and I got to within five or six blocks of the interview site with a half hour to spare. Which is where everything fell apart. There has apparently been some major roadwork done in that part of New Westminster and Majel wasn’t that up to date. She was unable to get me to the building or even remotely close to it. With ten minutes left before the meeting, I finally ditched her at the top of a San Franciscoian hill and set off on foot, using the Skytrain track in the distance for guidance.

I finally got to within eyesight of the building but I still couldn’t get to it! I conceded defeat and called the interviewer, explaining the situation to her. She laughed and gave me instructions. I arrived at 10:01, a minute late.

Let me add that in a show of exceedingly bad packing on my part, my comfortable interview shoes (read flat soled and roomy) were stowed somewhere in the basement this morning while my non-comfortable (read high heeled and toe pinching) shoes were readily accessible. The hike up and down that dang hill sure didn’t do my knees any good!

But the story doesn’t end there! At the conclusion of the interview I had to find my car (no problem there) and get home. Guess how long it took me to circle my way onto the freeway? 🙂

I’m extremely interested in this position and hope it works out. If that’s the case, my next step will be to determine if I need to move to another RV park. I have one in mind that I think is closer to the Surrey park ‘n ride Skytrain station, so I’m going to go visit it this week. I will also investigate if there is a bus that could take me from this park here to the Skytrain station. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 🙂