Adventures from my boring life!

[makeste]

A.K.A. THE REQUESTS FROM THIS MEME... PART ONE!

Okay, first request! From betterinorange: How about...you post about the last mundane thing you did that went awry? :')

I like this request because I immediately knew exactly what incident to post about. XD


So a couple of weeks ago, I took my car (a '99 Corolla, just to give you a better sense of exactly how boring I am) to the DMV to get inspected. The DMV is about a 15-minute drive from where I live, and fortunately (some might even say miraculously, given that it was the end of the month), there was pretty much no line at the inspection facility, so things moved along pretty fast! I was a little nervous that the car might not pass, since my check engine light had been acting up for the last month or so (an incident which culminated in the light simply clicking itself back off one day with no prompting whatsoever. LIKE MAGIC. My car is magic!!), but fortunately everything went well and I got a shiny new sticker on my windshield. Success!

OR SO I THOUGHT. Now here's the thing about the DMV; in addition to the inspection facility, it also features a driver testing course, so when you pull in to get to the inspection facility, you have to circle all the way around this huge, winding lot for what seems like ages before you actually get there. And once your car passes inspection and you hop back in again, you wind up having to exit at a completely different and mysterious place from where you drove in.

Here's the other thing about the DMV; I have been there before. Numerous times! And this was at least the third or fourth time I've gotten my car inspected there. What I'm trying to say is that there is no reason whatsoever why I should have suddenly gotten disoriented when exiting the lot.

...you can see where this is going.

I should also note that there were at least two guys who clearly worked at the inspection facility on break in the parking lot. Perfectly nice-looking people whom I could have easily asked for directions at the point when I realized that I stupidly didn't know whether or not to turn left or right onto the street (this was a long, out-of-the-way back street, I should add, with no clear landmarks to orient myself with). But, well, you know. That would have required actual social skills and an ability to admit my ignorance to a complete stranger! PERISH THE THOUGHT.

I got lost. XD

This is how lost I got: for at least 45 minutes afterward, I drove around through town after town trying to locate a familiar highway (for those who have never been to Jersey, the state contains approximately a billion different highways, twisting and turning and interlocking with each other in to form an unholy labyrinth, navigable only by those who have traveled these paths for at least 50 years, or those who possess the mythical device known as a "GPS"). Within the first five minutes my sense of direction was completely shot to hell (WHICH WAY IS NORTH??!), and I was too afraid to turn onto any of the highways I didn't know out of fear that I'd only misplace myself further. It was not scary or even frustrating so much as just plain embarrassing. (You might also use the word "sad" to describe it, but please only do so behind my back; I would like to retain some dignity.)

Finally, I spotted a series of signs leading to the Garden State Parkway, much to my relief (there's an old joke that you can't get lost in NJ so long as you know how to get back to the Parkway, and it's actually true, sob). I followed the signs, got on the highway, and drove for another 20-odd minutes or so before finally arriving back at home.

So yeah, "mundane thing you did that went awry"... pretty sure this qualifies. XD

Other requests to come! I'm thinking I'll probably do one a day until I get to them all.