Fears, phobias and public transportation

Here it is, November already!  My youngest granddaughter, the baby, just turned 6.  How is that possible?  The years are just flying by now.  It stinks.  Summer was way too short, and now we have to slop through another winter.  I'm against it.

I am very much against the stresses of this time of year.  In winter, all I want to do is wrap up in a blanky, drink hot coffee, and read.  And sleep.  Mostly sleep.  Instead,  I must prepare for yet another Thanksgiving and Christmas, holidays that will be interrupted this year by a trip to England.  Yes, I hear your violins playing for me.  What a hardship, going to England.

Well, England in November is no Palm Beach.  And the first few days of the visit, I will be on my own since Dave is going there for business purposes and I am excess baggage until Thursday.  Which means I will have to amuse myself and get myself around solo in a strange country.  Kinda like being in San Francisco, only a much longer flight.

Most people who think they know me don't know that I have been battling two powerful phobias for most of my life.  The first, and strongest, is mazeophobia.  Mazeophobia is the fear of getting lost.  Since I have poor vision and no sense of direction, it seems logical that I would fear getting lost.  Time, experience, and a GPS have damped this phobia down a bit, but it comes raging back to life from time to time... usually because of my second phobia- neophobia.

Yes, I am afraid of new experiences.  While getting lost is NOT a new experience, going someplace I've never been before is.  Which is why I usually go with someone or have someone else drive whenever going someplace for the first time.  That will not be an option in England.

Nor is it an option here, in San Francisco, now that my guide (daughter Kelly) has obsconded to Tennessee for some ungodly period of time.  I have not yet been able to overcome my phobias to venture any farther afield than the bookstore on the corner.  I left my GPS in Tullahoma.  I am doomed.

I haven't figured out the public transportation system yet.  There's so much of it, and it is so varied.  Trains, light-rail, cable cars, buses... lions and tigers and bears, oh my!   I could take a cab anywhere I want to go, but really don't want to take out a mortgage on the house just because I've been outsmarted by Bart, or am appalled at Muni.  (There's a pun in there but only the very old or very movie literate will get it).

ANYWAY, I have spent my whole life overcoming my fears by confronting them, and so tomorrow, I am going to brave the perils of city transport and go out.  I intend to have high tea at the Crown and Crumpet in Ghirardelli Square if it hare-lips me.  Wish me well.  And say good-bye now.  Don't know when - or if- I'll be back.