Thursday, June 2, 2011

Measuring with time

You know you're an Oklahoman if: You measure distance in minutes

Have you ever had to get directions from someone and have no idea what the hell they mean? Well this is especially true if you live in the South.

When I turned 15 my mom beat into my head that I should always pay attention to where I am, not only because she wanted to me to be safe if something were to happen to the car, but she didn't want me to get lost. While I "pretended" to pay attention to my current location it took several years, getting lost numerous times, and not being able to tell AAA where I was when my car broke down, for me to actually pay attention. But now that I have an iPhone, I will never have to call AAA and sound like a bumbling idiot when describing my location.

But before GPS I had no idea how long an actual mile was. I mean sure, some people would say that it was from one main road to the next, but when someone told me that it was 106 miles from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, I really didn't understand how long that was. Now, if someone were to tell me that it would take approximately an hour and 44 minutes for me to get to Tulsa, I'd completely understand and could time my trip perfectly.

A few years ago I dated a man boy that had recently moved to Oklahoma from South Carolina. He was in the military and I thought I was in love. We got along great in the beginning, but eventually the "love bird phase" wore off and the guy drove me bonkers. One of his favorite things to do was to mess with me when I wanted directions. He knew the concept of a mile was just a vague understanding, and yet he would tell me how to give somewhere with the number of miles, and to turn North, South, East, or West. Maybe it is just a "Yankee" thing, but it drove me mad. I'll take my left, right, 10 minutes, and even a few landmarks please.
 
Thank goodness for GPS.

1 comment:

  1. I would still be lost somewhere in the wilderness without GPS.

    It's a life saver.

    ReplyDelete