Velcrometer
Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks
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M. Giant's Velcrometer Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks |
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 Things Will Be Great When You're Downtown I've been known to make fun of Linda on occasion for her ability to get lost in Downtown Minneapolis. But I can't really do that any more, and finally the reason can be told. Trash's job situation was kind of up in the air for a couple of months there. It's not that her job might not have been there for her. Or that other jobs weren't there for her. It was, and they were. It sounds like a good problem to have, but it was tough for Trash. She feels uncomfortable with being overly in demand. You'd think she'd be used to it by now. So anyway, back in April, she went to an all-day job interview. Since it was downtown, she rode in with me when I went to work. She was supposed to be there at nine, and since I planned to park in my ramp by 8:15, she'd have plenty of time to get where she was going. I parked at my regular ramp on 9th and LaSalle at the regular time, on level one and a half. We walked down the ramp to street level. I should say that I walked; Trash hobbled. This was only days after she'd stepped off her mom's patio the wrong way and come up lame. "Are you sure you don't just want me to drop you off there?" I asked, not for the first time that morning. Again, she declined, wanting to make sure I got to work on time. But this time she asked where the address was in terms of blocks from our current location. Based on the letterhead she'd shown me, I figured that her destination -- on Fifth Street and Second Avenue -- was four blocks up and three blocks over. And by the time she reached the sidewalk on Ninth Street, she had wisely decided that she wasn't going to make it. "Do you want to wait right here and I'll come back with the car?" I offered, in all sincerity. Trash refused. She insisted on walking back to the car under her own steam. We hopped in (okay, I hopped in) and I drove her the short distance to Fifth Street and Second Avenue. Which, given that it was morning rush hour and Downtown Minneapolis is a maze of arbitrarily one-way streets, took about ten minutes. I dropped her off at the intersection. She couldn't see the place she was going to, but we both figured it was inside one of the buildings on that block. This block, by the way, was familiar ground to both of us; I had worked in the building across the street for three and a half years, and Trash had worked in it even longer, on two separate stints. She was nervous about her interview, but it was somehow reassuring that it was on familiar territory. That's why it was so funny when I drove all the way back and was just about to turn into my parking ramp and she called me on my cell phone from where I'd dropped her off, on Fifth Street and Second Avenue. "It's on Fifth Avenue and Second Street!" she said in a panic. The Google Map in my head zoomed out from her current location, realigned to three more blocks over and four blocks further up (the latter thanks to Washington Avenue, which isn't numbered), way the hell up to the Riverfront. I glanced at the clock on my dash and flashed on Trash's lopsided stride, and said, "I'll be right back. Wait for me exactly where I dropped you off." I called my boss and told her I was running late, then circled back. Ten minutes later, she was back in my shotgun seat, laughing at our damn-foolishness. There were no recriminations on either side, because we'd both seen the same address and both come to the same conclusion. Nothing for it now but to get her there. And get her there we did. Although she was a little gunshy about getting out of the car a second time. "Are you sure we have the right place this time?" she asked me. "Positive," I said. "How can you be sure?" "Because of the building and the sign with the name of the company on it right over there," I said. Surprisingly, this seemed to satisfy her. She still arrived early, and I wasn't even all that late to work myself. But only because I don't have a firmly scheduled start time. The interview went well, because a few weeks later they made her an offer. Which she turned down, having just accepted another offer. By the end of the summer, she's going to be carpooling downtown with me every day. Which is good. I figure that with the two of us working together, we minimize our chances of getting lost. Or possibly double them. I haven't done the actual math yet. posted by M. Giant 9:12 PM 1 comments 1 Comments:Hey, sweet! It turns out I'll be working downtown too... we should power-lunch. Or dinner (some of my day will start at 11pm).
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