path is changing mysteriously...

[Lev Lvovsky]

For some reason, with the many buffers that I have open, the path  
that a particular file takes, is instead of the initial directory  
where I started from (which is what I want), the directory that the  
file resides in.  Trying ":cd", or ":lcd" only temporarily changes  
it, and in a few seconds it changes back to the directory that the  
file actually resides in - what's going on?

thanks!
-lev