Three Shorts Part II

Parking structures are confusing. I like the idea of them. Shading my car for me so I don't have to sit in a 100 degree box, or shielding my car from rain and therefore allowing me a dry walk to the mall. However, I only use them if we have had some form of prior aquaintance. If, let's say, the husband has used it and I see that it isn't one of those twisty turvy ones, then I'm good. I will be likely to use that one on a different occassion. But, if I haven't been in it before, I do not venture into it because I get lost. I never know which way to turn to get to my desired destination. I inevitably turn the wrong way and find myself disoriented, at the exit when I want to go up, or driving up when all I want to do is drive down. That being said.

One night the husband and I decided to go out. This in itself is a rarity, since both the husband and myself are more of homebodies. We generally spend our evenings cooking together, eating together, then watching a movie together. Sometimes we throw some delicious homemade strawberry daiquiris into the mix. But we're pretty content just sitting with each other and being. But this night we went out.

The husband always drives and I am his navigator. If he makes a wrong turn, he turns to me and complains that it is clearly my job to make sure he doesn't miss the exit or turn the wrong way. Even for the simplest of tasks such as driving to the grocery store that we frequent every week, the husband need my directions to take him there. I thought it would get better when he bought a car with a built-in GPS. No. On the contrary, the husband now requests that I sound like the GPS. For example, if we are one exit away from our destination, he wants me to "ding ding" at him so he knows he needs to exit next. I obviously do not oblige this request of his, but I always find it enertaining that he wishes I sound like his GPS lady whom he has named Judith, because he thinks this name depicts a nasty, mean woman.

On this particular night I directed him to a popular outdoor mall where we could enjoy a romantic meal together. When we got there it was packed. There was no parking in our normal parking structure, the one we frequently used. We were forced to drive around to the other parking structure. It didn't seem like a bad idea. It was the same distance from the restaurant as the other parking structure and it actually had parking. (Although I am navigator, once we get into a parking lot, the husband is in charge. He decides the parking spot, because he insists on parking the furthest away from the front door as possible. This is a battle in which I have accepted defeat and no longer try to direct him.) So, the husband found a parking space, somewhere in the middle and we walked.

On the way back from dinner, we realized that we didn't exactly remember where we parked. This was a new structure. We forgot to look at the numbers they have on the walls with the level and all I remembered was it was in the middle of a level that was somewhat high up. We decided that it must have been level 5 and started our ascent. We walked to the middle of the aisle where the car should have been, but we couldn't see it. After a while of wandering, the husband pulled out his keys so he could beep the unlock button and we would be able to locate our camouflaged vehicle.

We heard the "beep beep" indicating our car was behind us. The husband kept hitting the button "beep beep" "beep beep" "beep beep". We headed in the direction we thought the car should be. Our ears were telling us that we should see the car. Yet there was no car in sight. We looked crazy I'm sure. Imagine that old couple you see at the mall. You know the type. They are so old they can barely walk, and by walk I mean take such shuffled and tiny steps that they can only manage to move as fast as a snail might. This couple is always arguing over something completely irrelevant, like who is holding the other one up. And they are always walking aimlessly and somewhat lost, like they can't for the life of them remember why they came here in the first place. We are like them. We are lost, and can't for the life of us remember where the car is and why we decided to park in an unfamiliar parking garage in the first place.

We must have walked back and forth down that aisle and the next for 5 minutes at least. And it was worse because the parking structure was really busy. The kind of busy where people follow you in their cars so they can take your parking spot as you leave. We had numerous cars follow us at various points in our quest for the car. We finally decided that the "beep beep" had to be right where we were. There was no other option.

Until. It finally dawned on us that we were hearing the "beep beep" come from a level under us. What was even worse was that when we finally walked down to the correct level, somebody was stopped in the lane with their blinker on, waiting for the owners of the car whose lights have been blinking and horn has been "beep beeping" for the past 10 minutes.

Now every time I walk into, park in, or see a parking structure, I think of how ridiculous we must have looked scouring the aisles for our missing beeping car.