Dyscalculia and Directions

Over at the dyscalculia forum, we’re all pretty bad at math.  That goes without saying. If we could do math we wouldn’t have dyscalculia. QED.

But there are a lot of non-math problems that tend to accompany dyscalculia. We have trouble conceptualizing time, reading maps, dancing, remembering sports plays, learning to read music, and playing games. In these areas, it seems that everybody on the forum has their “exception”. Somebody may be able to understand sports pretty well (even football, which is hecka complicated!), somebody else may be a decent dancer, and somebody else can actually play cards.

My “exception” has always been navigation.  Many people on the forum are terrible with maps, directions, and public transit.  An unusually high number of them don’t even drive.  Me, I’ve always been fine with that stuff.  Maps are never a problem for me, and in fact I have a nearly eidetic memory for directions.  If I’ve been a place once, I can get there again.  Back in the days before google maps, when we had to write directions down, I could usually remember them once I was in the car without referring to what I’d written at all — the fact that I had written them and read them back to the direction-giver was enough to get me there.  This was a good thing, because after taking that trouble to write out the directions, I usually forgot them when I left the house.

The only downside is when I get it wrong the first time.

The first time I went to my current doctor, I had a rough idea of where I was going, and I decided to take a “short-cut”.   I figured I’d take a left turn several blocks earlier than google maps directed, avoid a high-traffic street, and just turn right to be on the street I needed a few blocks to the east of my destination.  Unfortunately, it was one of those odd San Francisco streets that does not abide by the grid pattern, and my left turn meant that I was on a street that didn’t intersect with the street I needed.  I was practically in the Bay before I realized that I was way north of where I wanted to be.

It wound up taking me 45 minutes to turn around and figure out where I actually needed to be.  After I got home and figured out my mistake, I vowed to follow the google directions next time.

That was two years ago.

Ever since that day, I have driven to my doctor’s office, promising myself I’d get it right this time, only to go on autopilot and realize too late that I’d gotten it wrong again.  Two years.

That is, until yesterday, when I finally got it right… which turned out to be a good thing, because my clever plan to keep myself from being late backfired horribly …