I wrote a few years ago that maybe the way we should choose our jobs is to have other people decide for us. That idea came from a visit to a local park, during which a girl asked if I was the one who operated the hay ride.

In that post from August 2007, I said we should line up in front of a group of 100 people who would then write our occupation on a card. The job listed on the most cards wins.

I am proud to report that I have moved up in the suggested job list from hay ride driver to photographer/direction specialist.

This morning I was waiting for my family to arrive at a local restaurant for brunch. A woman walked into the waiting area and immediately asked if I could take a picture for her. Now it may just be that I was the first person she saw, but I’m going to assume she could sense my incredible ability to point the camera at her family and push a button.

Convenience would not as easily explain my direction-giving services. After dinner in D.C. last night I was waiting outside the restaurant while the rest of my party took care of some business. There were probably 20 other people on the block at the time, including three valets at a nearby stand. A group of maybe 30 young people came strolling down the street in somewhat dressed-up attire. I was about halfway down the block, not in what I would consider a normal place someone would be seeking directions.

The obvious leader of the group walked right past the valets and asked me which way to go to get to 14th Street. She may have just sensed I knew where I was (correct), or that I might make a good 50-50 guess.

Maybe I can harness all of these talents into some kind of direction-giving, picture-taking, hay-ride piloting venture.