Everyone has been to a new place, a college campus, a large mall, or a large
building where you didn't know your way around or how to get to where you want
to be.

I knew how to get to my daughter's hospital room from the hospital admitting
office as that was the way I went the first time. After that, it all became
very puzzling and confusing, like a cornfield maze.

There were corridors this way and halls that way, corners that stopped at locked
doors and signs that said "no admission." Even when I knew exactly where I was
going, I didn't always end up there.

There were at least four parking garages, and probably more that I have not
found. The first time I went there I found myself in a parking lot reserved for
doctors. Around the corner, I found the entrance to the parking garage. It was
plastered with signs that said "no visitor parking." I parked there anyhow as it
was the only garage I knew.

After I parked, I followed the signs that said "hospital entrance" across a
bridge. I came in on the second floor of the hospital, which is the first floor
of the garage. The admitting office is on the first floor of the hospital, but
you could not get there from this area of the second floor, and I had to find an
elevator down to the first floor.

From the first floor, I was directed to the waiting room on the fifth floor via
elevator B. I'm still not certain how I got there. I was afraid I might never
find my daughter as I had no earthly idea where anything was at this point and
was feeling a little dizzy.

From the fifth floor, I went up to the sixth where her room was. That was easy.
Except the only way I knew to get back to the parking garage and my car was from
first floor where I could get on elevator A to go to the second floor where the
exit to the parking garage was found.

On day two, I parked on level four of the garage as level one was full. Since
the entrance to the hospital was on level one, I had to take the garage elevator
down to level one and enter the hospital on the second floor close to elevator
A. But it is elevator B that goes to the sixth floor as well as to the cafeteria
on the first floor in case you have to stop for nourishment while wandering
around looking for elevators.

It seems that new wings had been added through the years as the hospital grew.
Eventually, it became a conglomeration of old sections, new wings, additions,
subtractions, divisions, multiplications and a bit of algebra. None of the
floors for difference sections seem to match up with each other. Everyone else
seemed to know exactly where they were going and rushed by like they were late
for an appointment.

There has to be a better way, I decided, after taking elevator B down to the
first floor, where I got on elevator A to the second floor, and exited to level
one of the parking garage where I caught the garage elevator to the fourth
floor. If the car would have been missing, I wouldn't know whether it was
stolen or if I was on the wrong level.

Then I found out that I could park in a different garage for visitors and take a
crosswalk to the hospital from level three of the garage to level two of the
hospital. I would come out at elevator B, which I could take to sixth floor. If
I followed the signs and didn't go to the wrong wing, I could find my daughter's
room close to the nurses' station or at the end of the rainbow, whichever came
first.

I'm telling you, parking gets more complicated every day. At this rate I will
be in the hospital myself soon, mumbling incoherently about alphabetical
elevators to nowhere.