déjà vu

My friends, I know you will not be surprised to hear that I got lost tonight. I get lost far too frequently for it to be a story worth telling, usually. But listen to this:
Tonight I was going to a theatre downtown that I'd not been to before. Not only that, but I needed to go from the upper East side to the lower West side; so I was going to travel from not-every-day territory, to completely unknown territory. I looked up the location on a map, and compared it with my public transportation maps, and figured out how I was going to get there. I was pretty pleased with myself, and left work with no map, but a plan.
Friends, I deviated from the plan, and there's only one thing that can result from that. Say it with me, "I got lost." My plan involved two different buses and it got off to a great start. But I got tired of waiting at the second bus stop, and I saw a subway station nearby with a trainline that I thought I remembered stopping very close to the theatre. So, I got on the train, and instead of looking at the map they conveniently display on the wall to double check that I knew where I was getting off, I took out my book thinking to myself, "I know where I'm going. This'll be easy." So I got off the train, and started walking to the theatre. Right about the time that the streets stopped being where and what I expected them to be and I started to worry that I had no idea where I was, I looked up to a very familiar sight. I was standing right in front of the Chocolate Bar. The exact same place I had been 24 hours earlier (but by an entirely different route). On one hand, a familiar sight is always a relief when one is lost. On the other, it wasn't where I was supposed to be. Okay, here's where I tell you the creepiest part of the story. Last night, on my way to the Chocolate Bar, I got lost. Again, not a big surprise, but I had been delighted to turn up to the right location without any idea how I got there. And now, tonight, I got lost, and quickly turned up at the Chocolate Bar. Coincidence? Or is the Chocolate Bar my own personal Brigadoon? You decide...
Back to tonight's adventure, I called Erin, as I tend to do when I get lost, but since she wasn't with me at the Chocolate Bar last night, my repeatedly saying that I was there did not help her to guide me to where I needed to go. This is where I did something so crazy, you might think I'm making it up, but I'm not. I decided to go into the Chocolate Bar and ask for help. Yes, ask a stranger for help. I thought that if the girls that had been working the previous night were there, I would talk to them, because they had been very nice yesterday. I walked up to the window and looked in, but there was some guy (buying chocolate of all things) obscuring my view. So I edged up to the doorway, and was trying to simultaneously hide behind the door post (in case I didn't recognize anyone in there, then I could sneak away without their knowing I had been about to enter) while craning my neck to look around the customer and see who was behind the counter. That is when one of the girls from last night came walking down the street, and not only caught me in my peculiar position, but was immediately accosted by me. I can't actually remember what the first words out of my mouth were, but I think it went something like this.

CATHERINE: [panicked and frenzied] "Oh good. It's you. I was here last night, and now I'm back, but I don't want to be here, I'm meant to be somewhere else."

Much to her credit, she responded very calmly with, "I thought you looked familiar. Where are you trying to go?" At that point I forgot completely where I had been going, and had to look through my bag for the address. As soon as I laid eyes on said address, I saw that I was two Avenues over from where I needed to be, because 8 and 6 are actually two different numbers, except for in my head, where, it seems they are the same. At this point, I'm sure I was bright red as I shamedly told this nice girl that I knew where I'd gone wrong and I would leave now. In an effort to save face, I left her with this brilliant remark, "You have a very nice shop; I seem to be very drawn to it. Thank you for your help, I'll probably be seeing you tomorrow night." I know, I know. I am such a weirdo.
But the point of my far to long tale is this: It's kind of scary, and kind of cool that I found this store twice when by all rights, I shouldn't have found it either time. And also, I like to think that maybe the Chocolate Bar girl has a blog too, and maybe she's writing on it right now about the crazy girl who keeps coming in.
Laura tells me that I'm to write a review of every play that I see, and that's what I was going to write about tonight, but now that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Unless I somehow find my way back to the Chocolate Bar going from the library to the church across the street tomorrow night, in which case, that'll definitely be the topic of discussion.