Campus is just bonkers right now. SO MANY VISITORS because we have the double whammy of summer visit days and also freshman orientation. I have road rage like you would not believe. And also! My new car is just a teeeeeeeeny bit bigger than my old car, and it's hard for me to understand exactly where I can fit. Thank god for my parking pass. That costs 1500 bucks. TO PARK AT MY JOB. And sometimes doesn't work because sportsball (and once last year a JOURNEY CONCERT ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME).
[I was worried because I applied for a 2025 parking pass and didn't get an offer and then I finally did but I couldn't actually purchase it, so I called the transportation office and found I needed to pay a parking ticket from 2014 before I could purchase my pass. WHAT.]
So, anyway. I can park in a garage near my office (that is on a street that is currently closed for construction, so getting in and out is dodgy), but my class is not in my usual building this summer. And when I drop Minnie at camp before work, I am sliiiiightly late if I park in my garage. Sooooo I spend my morning road raging to campus in increasingly clogged traffic the closer I get to downtown and then also driving around looking for street parking (yes, I do love paying the meter and also paying for a pass, why do you ask?) but I can only look for so long before I have to just throw in the towel and go to the garage and be a little late because too much looking and I will be REALLY VERY LATE.
IT IS A LOT TO DEAL WITH on 4 cups of coffee and no breakfast, but I am who I am.
On the plus side, I always use Maps or Waze these days because 1. I am driving on the freeway at least once a day to make myself more comfortable with freeway driving now that Ben lives out of town and Harry soon will because I hate it and spent years never doing it 2. I am always late and need to know the fastest way to go 3. Wireless carplay is so much better than plugging to to a specific outlet in the car, and it's so easy to see my map on the big car screen. (My car has its own navigation, but it seems to update less frequently and is not the best for chronic lateness and traffic).
ANWAY. Monday.
Summer is FLYING BY, and we are just having so much fun. Add in Big Brother and the return of Nacho Thursday, and I just have to PINCH MYSELF. Unless, of course, I am in the car. (Our dive carpool has been less consistent because of 2 different nationals for 2 groups of divers-- one to each nationals-- and driving to campus and back for work and then to campus and back for diving and AGAIN to pick him up from diving is as crappy as I knew it would be. This is a problem I must solve before the school year. MOAR carpool, right?)
Summer in pictures:
Teaching day 17/27, a total workhorse dress from Old Navy that I have worn a million times.
Traffic and parking are two high-stress things for me. Calgary was the worst. The parking costs were insane, I think at one point my husband paid $400 a month for parking at his job. He had a parking allowance from his company but still, that is what parking costs in downtown Calgary. Or, did back then.
ReplyDeleteGAH. I wish we had better public transportation here because I would love to ride the bus.
DeleteNo, no you really don't. Trust me. Post-COVID, I switched to driving because people are crazy. I rode the bus/train to work for 20 years. I couldn't take it any more.
DeleteCampus parking fees are such a rude BS move... like what are the options? Is the campus walkable? Does it provide nearby subsidized housing? And 1500?!? GTFO.
ReplyDeleteI'm also in "seizing summer" fun mode... so loving the pool pics. And aw... Toddler Minnie has well and truly moved on to the little kid phase!
I've never watched Big Brother... Is that something I should fix? Hmm.
I love Big Brother-- it's ridiculous. My friend Ragan Fox, who is a professor at Cal State Long Beach, was on the show 15 years ago and has written some fascinating scholarly reflections. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=ZsbjWpUAAAAJ&citation_for_view=ZsbjWpUAAAAJ:WF5omc3nYNoC
DeleteMy mind is SO blown. You work on campus. For the University. . . and they make you pay for parking. And that amount is $1500? Stop. This seems criminal.
ReplyDeleteI can rarely get my Honda Odyssey to connect to my phone's screen. I blame my antique phone but it's annoying.
Our summer just hit relax mode (mostly) because swim team ended and Curly's travel team, heavy on the travel, just wrapped up. I'm hoping for more pool days and MAYBE a 6 flags trip.
Love the pics and LOL'd at the walk off baseball mention on FB recently. I would have though the same thing.
parking is a rage issue for me LOL.
DeleteWait. HOW much do you pay for a parking pass??????? I would have road rage too if I were in your shoes. Good thing you have some nice pool time to balance it all out.
ReplyDeleteYikes. Add me to the chorus of folks who can't believe what you have to pay for your parking pass. I think it's $200 at my university (though I live within walking distance)?
ReplyDeleteYou squeeze so much fun out of summer, Sarah, and I love it. And I love, love, love your pool. That is the one thing my town is missing. An outdoor pool with a waterslide would be PERFECTION.
it's a great pool-- every year we are so glad to have it
DeleteThis is Lisa. Parking and traffic are definite sources of rage for me as well. Which makes me glad that Phil nearly exclusively drives me to work since we both work downtown. I miss the days of riding the bus to work but the express bus never came back to our neighborhood after Covid unfortunately. It seems like parking should be provided for professors or at least subsidized?!!?!
ReplyDeleteI would ride the bus if our system were better-- I have not had the time for this since I was in grad school
DeleteHaving to pay to park AT YOUR JOB is such a racket. I am literally quitting one job this year because I hate the driving (among other reasons, but that was the one that made it easier). Add stressful parking to that? HOW does your blood pressure not explode your heart every day?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the red stuff Minnie is holding? Giant wad of licorice? Scalped Raggedy Anne?
LOL LOL LOL it is a mermaid
DeleteLove your shoes! And yes, paying for parking to be able to be at your job STINKS. Why is that a thing? WHY? The whole driving and parking sitch sounds really stressful and wearying.
ReplyDeleteI do really like my commute after I have dropped off whoever is with me because I can listen to my audio book uninterrupted.
DeleteDid I ever write about the time I tried buy a parking pass on campus, but my husband already had one and it turned into a whole thing where we both ended up with parking tickets and were told that neither of our cars could park legally? Oh, that was fun. Our parking passes are a fraction of the cost of yours, but I am still frugal and midwestern enough to be bitter about it.
ReplyDeletethat sounds exactly right in terms of efficiency **eye roll**
DeleteEXCUSE ME. $1500 for a parking pass? TO PARK AT YOUR JOB??? That's insane. When I was in college, the parking passes were a couple hundred dollars and I could not afford that (lol, I was making a couple hundred dollars every two weeks at my VERY part-time job) so I tried to strategically park in those 2-hour lots for a while. Then I just had to bite the bullet and get the pass because I'd be on campus all day and that was not sustainable.
ReplyDeleteSARAH WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BIG BROTHER. I always forget you watch it, too!
Oh, Sarah. We could take up an ENTIRE HOUR on parking. Ready for this one? This year, I applied - again - for the lot where I parked this year. A standard pass - so the $$$$ one, like you have - and was... not granted the pass. I was demoted back to the Flex lot. Which means a long slog up a hill that is not always salted in winter, and walking by the *%#$(* red winged blackbirds in summer. To say I am peeved is an understatement. If they thought this would make me be on campus more, well, it's going to result in me showing up for classes and some meetings, but not all. (Sorry to rant on your blog but RAGE ISSUE for sure... it just sucks.)
ReplyDelete