 |
| Stolen from the Google; impossible to tell who first took it |
The Story: I was notified by another town department that there were last-minute openings in a narcan (anti-overdose drug) training taking place off-site the next day in the evening, hosted by a local rehab clinic. I got the OK from the boss, arranged after-work home plans, and emailed back the person from the other town department. Huzzah, I got a reply the next day that I was signed up for that night's class. I was told it was at such-and-such church the next town over. I google said church, get an address, and head out. The address takes me to a church whose name on the sign out front does not match the one I was given, but I figure it's got to be the right place because the address matches. I drive around a little first just to make sure there isn't another church right up the road (because New England is lousy with churches and it's not uncommon to find them in clusters), but this one is all there is.
I get to the aforementioned church about ten minutes early, and walk straight into the middle of an AA meeting. Someone in the meeting knows the rehab clinic people putting on my theoretical training, and tries to call them, but to no avail. He then directs me to another church that while its name ALSO is not technically such-and-such, it is colloquially called that, and maybe that was the church the organizers meant. So, I drive a few miles to the other church, and walk into the middle of a Christmas pageant rehearsal. I ask a bewildered mom if there would be another such-and-such church, and she sends me to yet a third church whose name is not that, but that is sometimes called that. I find my way there, and stumble upon a second Christmas pageant rehearsal. A second bewildered mom tells me the only church she knows called such-and-such is the first one that I went to. So, I go back there, find the AA meeting letting out, and ask someone if there is another meeting going on in the church proper or anywhere else that evening. He says no, but that the pastor is in by now and maybe he can help me. So, he takes me downstairs to the pastor's office, who has no clue about this meeting taking place at all, and he would be the one who does all the scheduling, so he would know.
He lets me use his computer, though, to check my email in case I got some stupid detail wrong, but I didn't, and I show him the email I got and he goes, "Well, that's us, and today, and the right time, but they're not here." After shooting an email back to the organizer, I thanked him and left, and he wished me luck, but didn't bless me, which maybe means he knew there was no saving me from the type of lost I was. I get in my car and call my boss, give him the short version of why after an hour of driving around I'm not going to the training, and decide to head home. My phone then dies. It was a miracle that it survived multiple GPS trips and a phone call as it was, but perhaps the divine destinations had something to do with that. So, I head off in the direction I HOPE the highway is, and resolve to get some fast food on the way home for mollification, foregoing a pit stop at the liquor store. Several hours after I get home, I get an email from the town department organizer, apologizing for giving me the wrong information. Apparently it was at such-and-such library, not such-and-such church.
The Lesson: The devil is in the details. Piddly little things, like addresses, or the actual names of locations, can help attendees find their way to events. Even if it seems straight-forward and obvious, always clarify these things before setting out.
The Resources: I used old-fashioned printed google maps directions to get to the first location the first time, because I knew my phone was likely to die from a 15-minute GPS trip (even starting out at 100% charge, which it was), and I wanted to save it for in case I got well and truly lost. Shockingly, this got me to the first church with no major hiccups. After that, I just used the GPS app on my phone to get me to the other locations. It did, in fact, die before making that phone call, and I sat in my car charging it for a while until it had enough juice to call my boss, before it died again completely. It was 20 degrees and very dark out, and I didn't want to wait for it to charge again to maybe get me home, but I was lucky I had that car-to-phone charger handy anyway.
