One of the many benefits of my current job: not a lot of night meetings.  Sure every now and then I have a night meeting, but these days are so different from when I was starting out.  When I was a young professional, night meetings were a few nights per week occurrence and the duration was horrible.  It was not uncommon to head home well past midnight.  Tiring?  Yes, more like exhausting.  Do I miss it?  No, not a smidgen.  So now that I only have a night meeting or two per month, no problem.

Last night was one of those meeting nights and it was my first time attending, as well as my first time visiting that particular building. Well, I figured I would be uber-prepared.  Sitter?  Reserved.  Directions?  Printed out.  RSVP?  Done.  I was golden.

The evening started out as planned. Sitter arrived at 6:15PM and I was scheduled to head out at 6:45PM, in order to make the short ten minute drive and actually be there five minutes before the 7PM meeting start time.  Golden.  I had time to fix a pizza for the boys, actually freshen up my work attire, and grab a bite to eat.  Night meeting?  No problem, I’m an old pro at this.  Glancing at my printed directions from Google Maps, I was right on schedule to arrive at 6:55PM.  Just one small problem, the building was not there.  The industrial park had nothing even resembling my destination.  Driving down the side streets, nothing.  No luck.  Google Maps had directed me to the middle of nowhere or right into the middle of the “Twilight Zone.”  Hum, either my map was in error or my meeting had been sucked into oblivion.  If it was the former, I had better find where I was supposed to go and fast.  If it was the latter, then I should consider myself fortunate that I wasn’t really early or I might have been obliterated, as well.  Either unlucky or lucky, hard to tell, when you are sitting alone in an industrial park.

Considering that the building’s address was on a state highway, I figured I would take a chance and drive to the other side of town. Perhaps Google Maps had interpreted East as West and just sent me to the wrong side of town, apparently the Bizzaro side of town.  Driving as fast as I could without begging for a ticket, I soon saw my destination.  It was a building I had passed hundreds of times before, but never noticed.  There peacefully standing East of Burger King was my meeting locale, my night’s work.  Parking the car and turning off the ignition, I glanced at the clock:  7:05PM.  Five minutes late, I could still pull this off.  Blame it on the sitter.  The sitter would never know.  The sitter would never care.

I rushed into the meeting room with an air franticness and confidence, as if to say, “My life is extra busy, but I’m damn good.” Within about fifteen seconds, I fielded my first question.  Ugh, I did not even have time to blame the sitter.  So much for a having a good fictitious excuse prepared.  So much for Google Maps.