parking

The problems of parking at USC are not at all the same ones that one experienced at Rutgers - no more driving round and round the parking lot at the back of Murray Hall hoping that something would miraculously become free - the alternative being a longish (damp, cold) walk carrying computer, books, home baking, etc.   No ... the problem is remembering on which floor of Parking Structure D one's parked one's car.   I was recently reading a (very helpful) book by C. K. Gunsalus, The College Administrator's Survival Guide (no ... do not ask why this should be my print matter of choice) who relates the interesting fact that at Berkeley, if you win a Nobel Prize, you get a parking space, with your name on it.   But obviously I'll never win a Nobel Prize, and it's not that I want a named space, even (though admittedly, it would be useful) - just a better memory.   Looking for a grey Lexus SUV doesn't help in Los Angeles, even if if did in New Brunswick.   So I've taken to parking on the roof (carefully choosing my spot - I learned an important lesson involving lamposts and seagulls the first time I left the car up there), where I can purr over the attractions of a Pacific Rim city every day - mountains, golden sunsets, eclectic architecture, and low hovering orange smog.