Oy vey
It's Game Day here, folks - the madness has officially begun. Thank god all the other games are being played on Saturday!
7:30 am - as I drove in this morning, I passed the stadium. All the surrounding parking lots already have pairs of parking minions guarding them! This is in addition to the signs they've had posted at all these lots for a week, letting everyone know that today they become game parking. Of course, the RV parking at the hotel across the street from the stadium was half full last night. Lordy.....
12:05 pm - the boss and office manager have taken today (and tomorrow) off. Do they know something I don't? The hallways here are even more deserted than usual, as most people are avoiding the madness. I should be so lucky!
1:30 pm - We all got an email from our building manger; we are subject to being towed from our parking lot if we park there after 1:00 pm. My coworker contacted the building manager, and that really is possible, but if you parked there before 1:00 pm, you should be fine. SHOULD be. Un-bloody-believable. The university employees are, apparently, less important than the suckers paying $15-20 to park in our lot. One of our profs says there's a tent & BBQ in our parking lot now, too. Good lord....
4:10 pm - and we're done. Coworker and I are leaving at 4:30, because it's getting worse. While there are still some spots left in our parking lot, I have a feeling that lots of football fans are leaving work at 4:00. I just want to get out of Dodge within a reasonable amount of time!! The only good thing is that I'll be going the opposite direction from all the football folks; that should help - I hope!
The morning after - When I stepped out of the building last night, there were 4 tailgating parties going in our small parking lot. People had set up yard canopies for shade, lawn chairs, radios, had BBQ's heating up, and everything that didn't move (and some things that did!) were covered in the school colors. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper from my building (near 35th) all the way out to the old Parrots on Hwy 34!! Of course, it wasn't just game traffic, there were people trying to get home, truckers trying to get someplace, delivery vehicles, etc, but it was all a mess. It only took about 15 extra minutes to get home, but considering I left at 4:30, it should have only been a 15 or 20 minute commute anyway! Thankfully, the tailgaters in our parking lot were responsible; they cleaned up after themselves, bagged their garbage and left it neatly by the garbage can.
All in all, it wasn't that bad, but I was far closer to the madness than I would have preferred. Fortunately, this should only happen once, maybe twice a year. And look, I'm already done for this year!
Whew!
7:30 am - as I drove in this morning, I passed the stadium. All the surrounding parking lots already have pairs of parking minions guarding them! This is in addition to the signs they've had posted at all these lots for a week, letting everyone know that today they become game parking. Of course, the RV parking at the hotel across the street from the stadium was half full last night. Lordy.....
12:05 pm - the boss and office manager have taken today (and tomorrow) off. Do they know something I don't? The hallways here are even more deserted than usual, as most people are avoiding the madness. I should be so lucky!
1:30 pm - We all got an email from our building manger; we are subject to being towed from our parking lot if we park there after 1:00 pm. My coworker contacted the building manager, and that really is possible, but if you parked there before 1:00 pm, you should be fine. SHOULD be. Un-bloody-believable. The university employees are, apparently, less important than the suckers paying $15-20 to park in our lot. One of our profs says there's a tent & BBQ in our parking lot now, too. Good lord....
4:10 pm - and we're done. Coworker and I are leaving at 4:30, because it's getting worse. While there are still some spots left in our parking lot, I have a feeling that lots of football fans are leaving work at 4:00. I just want to get out of Dodge within a reasonable amount of time!! The only good thing is that I'll be going the opposite direction from all the football folks; that should help - I hope!
The morning after - When I stepped out of the building last night, there were 4 tailgating parties going in our small parking lot. People had set up yard canopies for shade, lawn chairs, radios, had BBQ's heating up, and everything that didn't move (and some things that did!) were covered in the school colors. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper from my building (near 35th) all the way out to the old Parrots on Hwy 34!! Of course, it wasn't just game traffic, there were people trying to get home, truckers trying to get someplace, delivery vehicles, etc, but it was all a mess. It only took about 15 extra minutes to get home, but considering I left at 4:30, it should have only been a 15 or 20 minute commute anyway! Thankfully, the tailgaters in our parking lot were responsible; they cleaned up after themselves, bagged their garbage and left it neatly by the garbage can.
All in all, it wasn't that bad, but I was far closer to the madness than I would have preferred. Fortunately, this should only happen once, maybe twice a year. And look, I'm already done for this year!
Whew!