Same Time, Next Year (Not)

For the past four years an old friend Vivian has been coming in to The College of New Jersey from out of state to work on the board that grades Advanced Placement artwork. The first time I picked her up we went into the Chambersburg section of Trenton that has all these nice little Italian restaurants. We liked that and went back there the next year to the same place. The only hitch was we got lost in Trenton while trying to make our way back to the college. You have to know that our state capital is not a city you want to be lost in at night. I pulled into a convenience store where I saw a policeman and asked him for directions. Another cop pulled up and said something to the one we were talking to and our guy said to him, "I'm giving them directions to get them out of here has fast as possible." Not a good sign. With that we left him and went on our way. As we were trying to make our way back I was telling my friend about a time years ago I was in Michigan with my family and my parents van broke down in Detroit. We managed to pull into a gas station where the inside attendant was behind thick glass. I hadn't seen that before. Not a good sign. My cousins came and got us.
So as we're trying to find our way back we still don't think we're going right and I pull into another convenience store. I go inside to ask directions again. When I get back to the car I tell my friend the guy was behind the thick glass. Not a good sign. We finally did make our way back. Last year we went into Princeton and walked around and ate there, and that was nice. This year we decided just to go out to Route 1 and find a restaurant. Well in doing that I saw a much easier way to go home. All the years I had been going there I went a different way each time as it's kinda like, you can't get there from here. That is to say if you go on the big main roads you end up going out of your way somewhat to get there. So now after all this time I figure this new way to go and next year they're moving it all to Kentucky!

Copyright © 2006 Deborah Sharp Loeb