20090729 - Predisposed to getting lost

Ever since my little “low blood sugar, cannot find my house” episode I have been trying to understand how our ability to remember directions works. Several times during that evening I was at streets whose names I remembered as being near my house but I still could not put together the directions (picture) of how to get home. Even when not confronted with a blood sugar low, I have a hard time figuring out how to get to places. When I am remembering directions, my mind remembers a series of left and right turns. Since I have a finite list of things I can remember in a list I have a hard time remembering more complicated routes.
Anyhoo, I have been wondering how other people do it. I have always assumed that other people see more of a birds eye view of the route. Is that how you do it? Or do you see the route in some other way? Please comment if you are one of the lucky people who having driven somewhere once, can always find it again.
When I was younger I thought that having good fashion sense was an innate ability. However, one of the Asimov Robot books presented the idea that a robot could learn from books and show a woman how to do it. That got me to thinking that it was interest not skill that was innate. Which meant anyone who wanted to, could learn. Recently I read The Outliers where Malcolm Gladwell presented the idea that practice was the deciding factor. So instead of believing that I am genetically predisposed to getting lost, I am thinking that maybe if I could identify the skill and then practice, perhaps I could get better at this. Not 10,000 hours worth of better, of course, but better for me.
So, now I need help identifying the skills involved (since obviously I completely lack them). And of course, that begs the question how come I missed it. But let's not focus on the past but instead the wonderful future when I do not immediately turn the wrong way when leaving a building. (My husband’s observation about my lack of any sense of direction).

On another note, I have done a couple more things as a result of the low.
1) I give myself half the normal amount of Humalog insulin at the meal prior to exercising. This was my doc’s recommendation in response to my low.
2) I now have blood sugar monitor in the car. So the plan is:
If you feel low, park the car and check your blood sugar. If it is low, take 4 sugar pills (turns out they only have 4 carbs each), wait 15 minutes, check again and repeat as necessary. DO NOT START DRIVING again until the blood sugar is 80 or above.