This is just a random, odd post. About me. Not what I am reading or what I am cooking. Just me. And how really weird I am.
I love maps. Back in the day, I had loads of paper maps. Road maps for places I had been and places I would never go. And I love a nice big hard bound atlas. And globes. I have even progressed with the times. I am very into GIS (geographic information system). I can use ArcGIS as well as, if not better than, people with degrees in using it. I have used it to manage every plat and lot in a fairly large city. Or I can go old school and look at an old metes and bounds description, get out my pencil and Staedtler Drafting Kit, and accurately map it out.
What is so weird about this, you may well ask. Lot’s of people can do this. Love maps and mapping. Well, I’ll tell you. I have lived in my current tiny city for almost thirteen years. I still sometimes get lost going to the grocery store. Less than a mile away. Only one or two turns to take to get there. The city I managed to map out so well? That I went to school in and know like the back of my hand, on paper at least? I once went to a place there, or tried to, that I had been to at least a dozen times before and ended up lost, several cities away. On one trip to Nantucket, a place I have been many times, I got an entire group of people lost. Walking from the boat. To the hotel you could clearly see from the boat. How? I found a map on the boat. And I love maps. And I decided to use it. To get to the hotel that you could clearly see and just walk towards. My husband didn’t say anything. Because he had noticed what I hadn’t – and was amused. A large number of people were following me. Because I had a map and looked like I knew what I was doing. I always do things with authority and confidence. Even when I have no clue. They really should have caught on. Like when I stood on that corner and said, “This map is upside down.” Or further on, when I looked up at the street sign and said, “This street isn’t supposed to be here.” But they kept following me. After I had gone many blocks away from the hotel, my husband took pity on the fools following me. Some were old and they were all hauling luggage. He took my map away from me, turned us a full 180°, at which point I discovered I was leading a group, and headed us to the hotel. He has dined out on this story for several years now. Well… this and others. Let’s just say, I provide him with a lot of material.
Kate Eileen Shannon 