You might spend too much time at the hospital if...

I was getting in my car to leave the hospital one day last week when I noticed a small sheet of paper under my wiper blade. At first I thought it was an advertisement of some kind, but upon further examination I realized that it was a parking violation issued by hospital security. It stated that I did not have a parking tag and that I had parked in a restricted zone. I found this to be baffling because I was parked on a level of the parking ramp that I had parked on many times in a space that appeared to be completely ordinary.

When I got home, I told Ian what had happened. We decided to ask a security guard about it the next time we saw one. On Saturday night we finally saw a guard and remembered to ask. I explained where I was parked and asked if some levels were off limits. He told me that visitors could park anywhere in the ramp. He asked for my license plate number, make, model and color of the car. He remembered giving me the violation and explained that employees are not supposed to park in the ramp. After seeing my car parked in the ramp repeatedly without a sticker, he assumed I was an employee trying to get a better spot. He apologized profusely and hoped that the violation had not inconvenienced me too much. Ian and I found the whole situation to be quite amusing. Clearly, my car and I spend A LOT of time here.