I have to force myself out of bed every morning because I know that in about an hour I'll drive to school and try to find a good parking spot on campus.

It's not that there aren't any parking spots; there are plenty of them around. What gets me so upset—to the point where I need to take10 deep breaths before I can leave the house—is how all the quality parking is disappearing.

I'm talking about the spots you need when you're late for a morning class, or when you just finished a paper, right on the deadline, and you have to rush to a teacher's office to turn it in. There's even those rare occasions when you're feeling sick, or your girlfriend just dumped you, or an anvil fell on your head and just having a nice parking spot would at least make you feel better.

With the closure of the diagonal parking on Kobuk (which, as it just so happens, was directly in front of the chancellor's house and now looks primed for the installation a miniature golf course), the closest parking with plug-ins for students and staff headed to lower campus is the Haida lot, just past the Chapman building on Ambler Lane. For those going to West Ridge, getting a plug-in is a serious game of strategy, something akin to Tetris.

As a result of the lack of nearby parking, I've noticed campus-goers reacting in a couple different ways.

There are those who walk or ride the shuttle buses from the Taku or Nenana lots, adding time to their commute. This, it would seem, is the chosen solution of administrators who themselves have specific reserved spots with their special Gold decals and, ironically, have no need to walk or wait for a shuttle bus.

Another option is parking closer in the highly sought-after spots on West Ridge or in the Haida lot. This results in drivers who scope the lots for an empty parking spot with limited success. When a driver is unable to find a parking spot, they usually give up and drive to a farther lot.

But there are also those of us who wait, hoping, praying, that someone will pull out so we can have their spot. This is a tactic that I like to call "hovering."

Hovering takes patience, skill and some good old-fashioned luck. I'm not sharing any of my secrets mind you, but parkers beware, we'll be there waiting and watching for the perfect parking spot.

Comment on this story...