No Parking. Literally.

I've always known that my campus has somewhat of a parking issue--after all, most campuses these days do--but I confess that I didn't know how bad it was until this semester.

You see, as a primarily Tuesday/Thursday student until this point, I have been blissfully unaware of all the early morning headaches that come from campus parking lots on the heavier traffic days of Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.

Example: this morning, I arrived 10 minutes early to get a parking spot (I actually planned to get there even earlier, but I had to stop at the gas station first). I literally spent the entire 10 minutes circling three parking lots--one of which was so jam-packed that I could barely squeeze my tiny compact car in between the rows of rear bumpers. No joke: I had to roll my window down to make sure I wasn't going to strip the paint off of the side of my car. I ended up parking in front of someone's lawn on a side street and dashed into class with seconds to spare. It was definitely not the best beginning to my day.

After my first class, I resumed circling the parking lots like a buzzard to roadkill, hoping that some kind soul would allow me to have a prime parking spot near the building where all of my classes are located. Ten minutes later, I was obliged....just in time to dash back into the building.

Administration has implemented a $25 parking fee this semester in order to fund new parking lots in the future. Lotta good that'll do me at 8:54 a.m. Wednesday morning.