Some days, I bring a trail of chaos to the journey, like last Sunday.

See, I called the local hospitals to find a friend who’s sick—and it turned out she was at the second hospital. But I was sitting in the parking lot of the first choice. Thus, I had to take a drive across town.

I caught myself saying the room number out loud, but by the time I parked my car—I forgot the number. So I phoned the operator at the hospital again, and the friendly woman remembered me—and she said, “Did you w...