The Right Planet

I had a date tonight, not a boygirl date but a date with a group of non-neurotypical people on the right planet for me, and I am in love, sort of. In love with being with people who seem pretty wacko on the outside but when they speak they make sense to me. There's no fluff, no small talk, and everything they say is to the point and interesting, whether or not I agree with their point of view, and I didn't appreciate it until I was driving homewards and getting lost again, and it started to sink in.

I initially drove north from Puyallup on 161, being determined not to take the freeway if I didn't need to, all the way to where, according to Mapquest, I was supposed to "make a slight right" turn onto Pacific Highway/ HWY 99, so I got into the right lane which was an HOV lane, watching for the turn, but after a couple of blocks, checked the signs and realized that without turning I was already on 99.

Which threw me,  all the way until I turned left on 16th Avenue and watched for 14th Avenue [I know, it doesn't make sense to me, either] but it petered out into a parking lot. So this time I got back onto 99 and passed the other 16th Avenue which I was supposed to take without seeing the sign but was alerted when I saw the street which "if you get to 176th you've gone 0.1 mile too far" so I did a U-ey and turned onto 16th, and then later there really was a 14th and I was there.

And met some really nice and interesting people, and shared my taco salad and their pizza and sparkling cider, and we all talked about various things for two hours and they were all very intelligent and knowledgeable and pleasant, and it started to make more sense that I would drive up 14 miles and 30 minutes through all the hell and dragons just to meet an assortment of strangers who were very little like me on the outside but a whole lot like me on the inside, and I thought, maybe I'll come back again.

And for once I was not spending the drive home in remorse and castigating myself for the stupid things I said and did and then I got lost again by not trusting Mapquest any more and finding my own route. I figured that if I made no turns from 161 to be on 99 on the drive up, I should make no turns from 99 on the way down and would end up back on 161. Which didn't work, and I'm pretty sure the turn I missed was for "I-5" which I didn't take because I didn't want to get Shanghai'd onto the freeway.

Probably that wouldn't have happened, and the signs would have shown up to just take 161 instead, but anyway I ended up in Fife, turning left onto 70th towards Edgewood and Puyallup. However, as soon as I saw Valley Avenue crossing 70th I turned onto it [instead of waiting for 161 to turn up] but I turned right, which took me back into Fife, so I had to turn around practically in someone's back yard and take Valley Avenue back home where I belong.

And thought, what a nice bunch of people.