restrooms for 3

The view from my new desk!!!

Today was the first day in our new office!  It turned out to be a great day and a relatively smooth transition but not until after what I call a rough start.

The new space is in an office complex.  Not an office building; an office complex.  'Complex' being the key word here, in every sense of the word.  The path from the complex entrance to my desk was in fact complex.  Starting with my first trip into the parking garage.

**a little bit o'ellen history**  I have a strong dislike for parking garages; coming close to hyperventilation every time I enter one, especially if it is new, uncharted territory.  I don't know why nor do I know when it started.  Probably about the time I started driving if I had to guess.  I don't understand them, can never seem to navigate correctly through them, & do not enjoy the feeling of helplessness amongst the cage of concrete and/or steel columns.

This probably seems odd to you, especially if you know my education & career backgrounds: architecture.  Having gone through seven rigorous years of higher education you would assume that parking garages have no hold over me; thinking that, after all, I am bigger [figuratively speaking] and smarter than these structures.  This is a common misconception.

During my internship I was assigned the seemingly simple & non-to-thrilling job of designing a parking garage.  This didn't last long.  I tried, though.  I really did try.  About four days into the task my Project Manager sat down at my desk with me and said, 'We are going to get you started on something else; you've done a fine job here but we are going to let Ming take over from here.  She....how do you say...she's being a little more creative and....she gets it.'  True story.

So it should come as no surprise you that it took me four trips in and out of the parking garage and one desperate phone call before success was mine.  I would be embarrassed except for the fact that it took several of the others multiple trips as well with one even asking our Office Manager to go down & get in the car with her.

This thing is tricky.  I discovered that there is only one way up; only one way down.  Once you get off on a floor, you can go neither up nor down a floor without going all the way down, out, and around.  My fourth trip was a success, albeit a frustrated one, and set out on my next task: finding my building tower.

There are at least five towers in this complex [and four parking garages], all connected on several different levels and all with a minimum of two names.  On my tour I found the food court/cafeteria but please don't ask me where it is; that was one building, two floors, and three elevator rides ago.

The bathrooms have just been updated & refinished;
there are partitions separating the three!

If I were to stop here you would think that I hate the new place.  Please don't be fooled:  I love it!  Sure there are some things that we will all have to get used to but overall it's going to be great and there are several immediate rewards.  Like that bathroomS.  The 'S' is bolded, underlined, & italicized for a reason: there are multiple restrooms.  And not just multiple stalls, multiple restrooms.  As in Boys & Girls.  Mentally I had gotten so used to the single, shared bathroom at the old office that I nearly fell off my toilet when I heard someone else flush a toilet next to me.  I think I scared the woman in there [of course she was not one of my co-workers and did not share in my alarm] as I screamed pretty loud.