Just a Little Lost

James F. would have been proud. Or, maybe not, 'cause he's kind of a hater, but in a charming, funny way, but still, I thought of him this past weekend.

I was on the corner of 16th and P Streets, NW, walking east on P Street, heading home. There was a couple behind me, and try as I might to ignore the conversation that the woman was having on her cell phone, I couldn't.

"We're at 16th Street now," she said. "Okay, so it's a right turn? Church Street? Okay. 15xx Church. Okay, we'll be there shortly."

No biggie, right? Except about midway down P Street, I heard them again: They were still behind me. Which means they were heading in the wrong direction.

I tried -- I really tried -- to let this couple find their way on their own, since I didn't want to appear as though I was totally eavesdropping on their conversation. But I lost my resolve when I heard the female say:

"Hmm, now we're at 15th. Still no Church Street...."

At which point James F.'s voice (which I have never heard, but give me some leeway here) boomed in my head: "Be friendly and help these poor people!" -- even if it also meant an admission that I had heard every word of her end of the phone conversation.

"Uh," I said, "Church Street is about a block north" -- I pointed -- "so, that way."

"Oh," she said. "I guess we're basically walking parallel to it...."

"Yeah," I said. "And 15xx Church Street" -- I gave her the exact number of her destination -- "is between 15th and 16th, so you've kinda just walked an extra block, and now you're going to want to turn left instead of right when you hit Church."

"Oh, so you heard the entire conversation?" she laughed.

"Uh... well, yeah."

So, James F., count this encounter as one of times when a D.C. resident stopped and helped poor lost out-of-towners (or at least new-to-Logan-Circlers) along their merry way.

Funny thing is, as of right now, I couldn't tell you what the girl I had this entire conversation with looked like, because when I turned to help them out, I ended up looking straight at her boyfriend, who had the most gorgeous eyes such that I just locked on to them. Wow. (Think Drew Fuller, aka Whitelighter Chris from "Charmed," but with even better-looking eyes.) He was a cute one.

(Hey, if you're the boy who got lost on the way to 15xx Church Street and got directions from a random Asian guy carrying his groceries home, and if that's not your girlfriend and in fact you play for my team, drop me an email or a comment. Thanks.)

(I figure that last paragraph has at least much chance of success as a Craigslist "Missed Connections" posting, but hey, it's my blog, dammit.)