An advantage of baldness

I am not exactly a renowned world traveller, but I have seen my fair share of here and there. You could say I have been about a bit … if you can actually SAY it that is. Go ahead. Try.

Every place has its charms and its challenges. Being a more nature oriented lad, I often find that one of my biggest challenges is figuring out how to actually navigate a metro area. The more metro the more difficult to navigate … at least for me. In all my travels, the top five most confusing to my sense of direction are:

1. New England Cities
2. New Mexico (the whole state)
3. Washington D.C.
4. Malls … and …
5. … actually I don’t have a fifth (boy I could use one!)

Number one is very ironic since I was actually born in New England and have spent a significant portion of my life there.

New England has mastered the art of non-planned growth … and non-labeling. New England cities do not follow any recognizable design, and certainly don’t use anything as mundane as north, south, east and west in their development. And because direction giving in New England is innately landmark driven, they don’t feel the need for actual street signs.

Yesterday I had my audition. Because the train schedule from home to Boston is not exactly in the dictionary under "convenient", I ended up in South Station about two hours before I needed to be there. I had the address, my new camera, my trusty iPhone complete with GPS, and the need for exercise. So I walked the fivish miles to the audition location. Took many pictures. Mostly did not get lost (the map and GPS did a fair job of actually matching the labyrinthine streets). The difficulty generally being not having any clue what street I was actually on. The place I was looking for was Old Town Trolley (a trolley tour agency). With barely a mishap I made it to the address that I was looking for (it was even labeled for a change) … and it was very distinctly NOT a tour company. It was actually a hair salon.

Doing the unmanly thing, I stepped into the hair salon to … shudder … ask directions.

I very nice young lady came out asking if she could help. I took of my hat (it was a brisk day). Upon seeing my follicly challenged scalp, she kind of giggled and said "You’re looking for Old Town Trolley aren’t you?" Turns out the Trolley office  was technically in the same building … just a different suite. Next door down.

But my question is, without me speaking a word, how DID she know?