adrian_turtle

Where I come from, we called the road between Plymouth and Ann Arbor the Plymouth-Ann Arbor Road, as is only sensible. Actually, that's just the wishful thinking of nostalgia. In Ann Arbor, we called it Plymouth Road. And in Plymouth, they called it Ann Arbor Road. I was within a few weeks of my 19th birthday by the time I saw a street sign that actually said "Plymouth Ann Arbor Road," and I figured out the connection. (Previously, it hadn't occurred to me that Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor had anything to do with the city of Plymouth. *eyeroll* It's not like Concord Road in Southfield has anything to do with Alcott's Concord. I thought streets were just named for cities when town planners ran out of presidents or got tired of trees.) Even with this background knowledge, I still didn't appreciate that the Chelmsford Road to Billerica and the Billerica Road to Chelmsford are different roads.

My GPS often has trouble finding a signal. Many times, it gets stuck, and I have to reboot it before it will work. I looked up directions on Google before I left for Monday's job interview, and cautiously allowed 80 minutes for a drive I expected to take 45. I've often had trouble rebooting the GPS on the road, because the reset button is set too deep to reach with a ballpoint pen, or the back of my pride pin, and small paperclips or mechanical pencil leads aren't strong enough. It needs one of the BIG paperclips, so I remembered to bring one. After 6 minutes of not responding, I reset it and managed to both get the device stuck in demo mode. The next reset killed it. It won't show anything but gray rectangles, now.

Anyhow, there I was, on my way to the job interview in Westford. I had planned to use my handwritten notes to get past gaps in GPS coverage, but it turned out I needed to rely on them completely. An exit number and a word like "Billerica" is really desperately inadequate, when I don't have the GPS device to get me out of trouble. I called Vicki, hoping she could rescue me...but navigating for cars is really not something she has much practice with, and navigating the roads of northeastern MA is not for beginners. I called the HR person expecting me, but she had no idea where Billerica was, and thus could not direct me. I asked if it would be more convenient for her to reschedule? She would call me back about that. I stopped at a disturbing number of shops and restaurants where people had no idea where Westford was, and thus could not direct me. (This is a consequence of sprawl people often don't think about. If you drive an hour to work, you aren't likely to know much about the area near your workplace.) I finally found a mortgage officer at a bank, who gave me useful directions very graciously.

With all the getting lost and going the wrong way and stopping to ask, I was an hour late. (Not to mention frantic with anxiety.) I apologized profusely, and repeated the offer to reschedule the interview, if it would make things easier for the HR person or the hiring manager. That was when I got lucky. It turned out that the hiring manager had not noticed my failure to arrive for the interview Monday afternoon, because nobody had put it on her schedule. Could I come in Wednesday and not mention the earlier attempt? Sure, that would be fine. Thanks.