Who Feels Like An Idiot Today?

I do, dear readers!

While I am very happy to be working in SoHo, I've yet to figure out the best way commute from Brooklyn. Both the Spring Street and West 4th Stations plop me virtually the same distance from Hudson and Houston. I've been taking the C from Jay St. because it is one stop shorter than the F to West 4th. Today, there was 'police activity at Canal St.' so I stayed on the F.

I'm also a 'pre-walker' so I hung to the South portion of the platform, exited at West 3rd and headed west on Bleeker. Here's where it gets dicey and I lose all inner-compass credibility: I made the dastardly mistake of turning on Barrow from Bleeker and entering into the Bermuda Triangle of the West Village.

I should have known better. I STILL have to take a cab from West 4th/6th Avenue to get to Chumley's on Bedford and Barrow, even after nearly eight years. The streets just make no sense south/west of the grid. Wherever the damn horse went and the farm plot ended, they threw down some cobblestones and called it a road. But, I digress...

So now I'm on Barrow and (wrongly) thought I was going southwest. I could tell something was amiss and made another left at Chumley's. It wasn't for another few blocks when I spotted the rainbow flags of Christopher Street that I knew I'd screwed up. Ah, but Christopher dumped into Hudson! I was saved!

Or I would have been had I taken a left instead of a right. I couldn't tell which was east and which was west (I know, I know - well now I know, that Hudson runs north/south it's why I couldn't find the sun - my compass when exiting foreign subway stops uptown). In my defense, the West Village is not where I've spent a lot of time. I'm much more an East Village kind of girl. So here I am, in a section of town that I just feel is not right when I spot West 10th Street then Charles and then "motherfucker!" I give up.

I turn to the nearest pedestrian who happens to be a girl my age walking a dog and shamefully ask which way is Houston. She's in black. I'm in black. I'm embarrassed and she can tell I'm embarrassed. She, and I swear her little dog, smirk at me and point in the opposite direction. I smirk back nodding my head 'of course it is' and toss her a 'thanks'.

Why didn't I just walk down 6th Ave to Houston? I had to go trying to save time by zigzagging, and ended up zagging myself 6 blocks north of my original route. Silly me. Well, you've gotta get your tourist on sometimes, right?

I'm taking the C tomorrow.