Adventures in a parking garage

This week I experienced another adventure in a parking garage. I am what you can call ‘not good at parking garages’. Normally, there’s nothing ‘to be good at’, you take a card and the gate opens, you park your car and you go out. Not for me. Somehow, there’s always something going wrong, I don’t know what it is.

So, this time I have an appointment with a company which is a couple of kilometers from my office. Therefore, I do not need to leave early, I will be there in about 15 minutes, no problem. Well, that is until the parking garage…

I have found the building and choose an entrance that looks like a parking. But not a garage, this way goes up. I don’t know why I’m standing there, I should have known better! Anyway, the guy on the intercom tells me very friendly that this is the runway for taxis and that I need to drive a little bit further to the left, to the entrance of the parking garage. Of course!

Here, I push the button again and tell the guy (the same one?) whom I will be seeing and he says something like: welcome, drive through please. OK, I close my window, drive a little bit further until the gate and wait patiently…. Nothing happens. Grrr…… I put my car into reverse, drive back a little bit, push the button again and tell this guy that nothing’s happening. “Please take the card out m’am, and the gate will open automatically”. Why didn’t he tell me before? Did I miss something there? I take out the card and miraculously the gate opens…. Inside, I have trouble finding a parking place with the name of the company I’m visiting. It’s Cisco all over the place. Finally, I’m so sick of it, I park my car in a Cisco place. What the heck, nobody will know anyway!

After having parked my car, I walk to the entrance of the building. That is to say, what I think is the building. I cannot go in, and nearly bump into 2 glass doors. OK, push the button again, tell the man whom you’re coming to see and that’s it. The man at the intercom (the same one?) explains that I’m at the wrong entrance. Grrr……. I follow his directions to the right building, push the button and the doors open. I want to walk straight ahead to the elevators, but the glass doors won’t open for me. To the right I see another elevator, this one must be especially for visitors. And yes, I can go the ground floor with it. But I’m supposed to go to the 6^th floor!! At the ground floor a man (the same one?) tells me that I need to change elevators.

Finally, I reach the offices where I have my appointment. There are about 12 people in the room sitting at a large table, waiting for me. I am the last one to arrive….