How can one get lost if one knows the way?

Before i get on with this, for this occasion I'm not thinking metaphorically. As i know that the only routes and paths i know are those that i take on a daily basis to get to my office, those city roads I've memorised through my lifetime. And that's about it, those are the only paths and ways i truly know. My life path, is unknown. Now, i can proceed to the literal description of my experience from today.

Well, that is the point for this post. I happen to get lost (or get confused if you want to call it that) in several occasions when I go to work or come back home. I've been living in this city for ten good months, but I always take the same routes to work, come on, there cannot be several many routes anyway. So they have become more than routinised in me.

Having said that, I've got lost several times. There have been times when i have no clue where i am, and on how to find my way to where i was going. Hum, that confusion, sometimes is truly scary. I get feelings of uncertainty. I am used to get lost when finding my way in new routes, I don't feel angst about it like other people do. I understand that if i get lost, I'll find my way eventually. However, when i do not recognise where I am, that can be quite scary, especially when I'm supposed to know where I am and where I'm going. It only last for a fraction of a minute.

Today, something else happened. A car almost ran over me. This was the third time that happened in the past year. The other two times i was on my bike. This time I was on my bloody feet. I was walking on the middle of the road, and didn't see the car coming straight towards me. I heard a car coming, but i didn't see it. I had the headphones on, but i still heard the car... and didn't do a thing. Completely absent.
My husband asked me, 'but why were you walking on the middle of the road?'
I said: 'I don't know; I did wonder that though...'

Although it would be so easy to blame it on my absent mind, i would like to think that the inertia of my everyday life is responsible for that. Doing things in automatic cannot be good for the brain. Having newer things to do, more often than not, has to be the best way to get around that. I can understand that such a request is rather impossible. We all need the routine to satisfy the social need for settlement. As social actors we need the sense of security about things that we do and that may take place. However, the inertia must not exert as much power as it does on me. I know, most of the people live that way, and get by fine. Yet, this does not seem to be my case.

My only solution, as of this moment, is to remember to be alert. I think that army people could tell me that such should be a way of life. To be alert at all times, no matter what. Not to take anything for granted. Observe the surrounding stimuli; and always look to the right, to the left, to the front, and to the back. And if I kind of hear a flipping car coming over, I should respond to that!