Parking

Along with the office move to a new building comes a new parking garage.

And with a new parking garage comes finding a new "usual" spot to park, ignoring the fact that that spot my be someone else's "usual" spot, of course.

Half-way through my second month in this building, I still have yet to find "my" spot.

I arrive earlier than 99% of the parkers in this garage, it seems. I have the pick of the litter when I arrive at 6:10 a.m. (on the mornings I work out) or even when it's not until 7:30 a.m.

That means I get to snag the spots where I can easily back in, and are on the higher levels.

I wasn't really having a problem when I was leaving between 5:45 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. But several times in the past week I've needed to leave around 4:30 p.m. or 4:45 p.m. to get out to Alexandria. And on each of those occasions, I've been parked in by the valet parking.

Which means I have to walk up the ramp, tell them the ticket number on the car blocking me, and wait in line like until one of them is free to move it.

Annoying.

Today I also hope to leave around 4:30 p.m., so I thought I'd be smart about parking. I went down an extra level, staying clear of the spots that had me parked in.

Just a few minutes ago, the office phone rang. It was the main parking attendant. Apparently, although there are dozens of spots marked "Reserved for Interpark Valet" throughout the garage, and I did NOT park in one of those reserved spots, they still like to have that spot for themselves because it's on an end and they can double park around it, and someone just forgot to put up the orange cone this morning, and would I mind moving it.

Where exactly CAN I park in this garage, I wanted to yell into the phone!

But in life, there are a number of people who you really want to help out -- pat their back -- because it'll come around two-fold for you. (Oh, and it's Christian of you -- don't forget that one.) Your boss's secretary, for example. The dry cleaner. The FedEx guy.

I think the parking attendants in your building is one of them, although they are about to lose their spot.

So I moved the car. Heaven knows if I'll be parked in this evening.