my beloved alma mater

I'm warning you now: this is a complaining post. And it's about BYU. If that hurts your feelings, stop reading.

I am so sick of BYU. Two weeks from yesterday, I will be done with classes there forever. Today I told Jaime on the phone that after I graduate, I refuse to step foot on that campus ever again. If someone has some kind of event there, I won't go. So all you Provo friends, if you love me and you want  me at your wedding reception, don't have it at BYU.

To be fair, I should specify the things that I'm sick of. Because it's not everything. I guess it's a fine school. I've had several years there and I actually have had one or two (or more...fine.) good experiences there. But lately the bad is outweighing the good. Allow me to elaborate.

1. Parking
Parking during fall and winter semesters is impossible. If you don't get there before 8, you should go ahead and expect to be following pedestrians very slowly as they walk out to their car so you can take their parking spot. The most glorious part of taking spring classes (because there's not very much that's glorious about taking classes when you should be out enjoying the summer) is that parking is so much better. There's a fraction of the people on campus so you can find a pretty decent spot at any time of day.

NOT TODAY. (If you were wondering, I just pounded that into my keyboard. Good thing my computer's young and new and can take that kind of abuse.)

I got to school today at 9:45. My class is at 10. I've gotten to school later than that this term and found a spot without a problem and still made it to class on time. Not today. The last couple of weeks, they've had about 3/4 of the parking lot blocked off so they can redo the tree planters in the parking lot. Umm...first of all, just take the tree planters out. They take up space that could be another much-needed parking spot. I don't need greenery in my parking lot. Second of all, I do not believe that you need to block off a couple hundred (that may be an exaggeration, but if it is, it's only a slight one) spots to work on maybe 10 planters which are about the size of half of one spot. When I got there today, it was as bad as it has ever been. Not only did they have 3/4 of the main lot blocked off, two of the three smaller side lots were completely blocked. No pasar. And if you were wondering...I saw three construction men working on one planter. The other 199 spots they'd blocked off? Totally necessary. Obviously.

So I spent about ten minutes driving around, with the other hopeless drivers in my position, hoping I'd happen upon someone who was leaving. No such luck. So I left and went to the parking lot on the other side of campus next to the Marriot Center which is never full. Not today. I don't know what was going on there today but it was competely full. And I was completely livid. So I drove back to the other spot and was able to catch someone who was leaving. Of course I did--my class had already started by that point. So my earliness this morning was for naught. I was still late. That'll teach me to try to be a good, punctual student. Or maybe that will just teach me to expect BYU to do something logical, such as only block off the needed spots or wait to do it until later in the day when everyone's gone. Silly me.

2. Umm..I can't remember. I got so worked up about the parking situation today that I just lumped it in with the other things I hate about BYU but now I can't remember what they are. I guess that's better. Maybe I should try to do a gratitude post so I can improve my very negative attitude about my school.

Not today.