I Am Somewhere

I like cooking, I suppose. It can be a little stressful when the cooking appliances don't work properly, and preparing a dish for the first time can be nerve-wracking. I will admit openly that my repertoire is somewhat limited (most of the cooking that I do on a regular basis consists of microwaving leftovers). I'm certainly not cut out for one of those cooking competition shows where people are given a set of ingredients and/or a required dish and are then let loose to prepare something within a set amount of time. But if I have sufficient time to prepare my ingredients and a recipe to follow, I can usually do just fine.

As long as I have a set of directions to follow, I'll be just fine (usually). When I'm on my own, I start to have trouble.

A good example of this would be last Friday. I had to drive over to Madison to attend an Academic Information Session. There, we (myself and others) were given an overview of applying to MATC, including getting a Madison e-mail account, applying for admission to a program, and applying for Financial Aid. One thing that I was wondering about (and was sure to ask about) was the matter of transcripts - it was required that applicants have their academic transcripts sent into MATC from their previous schools, via a third party. I wasn't sure how to go about this, so I asked about it and was told to contact my previous schools to make arrangements.

The Session was a success. Then came the drive home.

I had written down a set of directions to follow on my drive to Madison. They got me to the city and to my destination just fine. They didn't work so well going in reverse, however. I got into a series of navigational mishaps, starting shortly after I exited the parking lot. (Though, now that I think about it, exiting the parking lot proved a minor challenge.) A short list of my problems is as follows:

• Turning onto the wrong street
• Turning onto the right street, but going in the wrong direction
• Driving on the right street, in the right direction, but missing my turn and having to circle back
• Turning onto the wrong street (again) because I couldn't remember how I first got onto that specific road when I first came in
• 20 - 30 minutes of aimless wandering (because by that point I was totally lost) before finally getting onto the interstate
• Taking the wrong exit and having to make a wide loop in an attempt to get back
• Getting onto the right highway, but going in the wrong direction (again)
• Turning off on a small, country road and doing a 3-point turn, forcing another driver to wait for me to finish

By the end of it all, my nerves were shot, my patience frayed, and my emotions drained. If all goes well and I am accepted, I will be driving back to MATC soon enough. That time around, I am going to write a separate set of directions for the trip back!