directional disaster

i am taking the MPRE in Richmond this saturday morning, and am going down to Short Pump for some pre-trauma retail shopping on friday, then spending the night at Jen's boyfriend's house to avoid the hour drive the next morning. i am terrible with directions. i still call Rob every time i need to find I-64 and ask him how to get there. yes, that is a major road. in a city i have now lived in for nearly 3 years. wanna make something of it?

also, if i don't have specific and accurate mileage details, i start to hyperventilate after about 0.5 miles, convinced i've missed the next turn. driving to/in new places is very traumatic for me. oh, and i have the memory of a gnat, so just b/c i've been there once or twice, that doesn't mean i have any idea where it is or how to get there.

so here are all the directions i have just printed offline for that 24 hour span of time:

• mapquest directions from my address to short pump
• the mall's website's directions (i couldn't initially do this b/c i had no idea if cville was east, west, north or south of richmond. when another site told me that info, i printed out a second set of short pump directions.)
• jen's directions from cville to jim's place
• mapquest directions from the mall to jim's place
• mapquest directions from jim's place to the parking garage we're supposed to park in on VCU's campus
• mapquest directions from jim's place to the actual building in which the MPRE is being administered
• VCU's website's directions from north, south, east and west, as i have no idea which direction jim lives from VCU

the kicker is that in all the instances where i have multiple sets of directions for one route, NONE of the directions match up.

i am going to get very very very very lost. and i will probably cry. i will certainly hyperventilate. i will leave jim's approximately 4 hours before the MPRE begins to make a 15 minute drive and i may still miss the exam. i will probably be so nervous about getting to the exam that i will not be able to eat, and then i will be starving, in addition to my hyperventilating and crying.

i suppose i should just thank my lucky stars i couldn't find anyone to go to the BC/Wake game with me. like i could have ever found my way to winston-salem. and if i did, i'd probably have to spend the rest of my life there, unable to ever find my way home.