I Know How To Pick Them

Last night my daughter and I ventured north to downtown Dayton, a new area for us. We were going to the Schuster Center to see the Broadway tour of Legally Blonde, The Musical.

I'm embarrassed to report that our streak of picking the creepiest parking garage around continues (first started in Columbus last year). I *thought* I was pulling into the "Arts" parking garage, but somehow missed it (in all its well-lighted, well-secured, uncreepy glory). Instead, I pulled up at a parking garage with an innocuous "Event Parking" sign in front. When the man didn't have change for a $20 should have been my first warning. The second? When he had to hand-crank open the gate. The third? The complete emptiness of the garage. As in, cue the Psycho music, call in Jack Bauer, start running for your life kind of empty.

I ignored all instincts of going to find somewhere else to park, and my daughter and I hightailed it to the elevator, which was only slightly less terrifying than the stairs. As for location, we did well. Less than a block from the theater, and there were lots of people coming from the Arts garage (I swear they were silently taunting us), so the icky factor quickly faded--until the performance (it was really great--the UPS guy totally stole the show) ended and we had to head back to the garage. Cue Jaws music.

We saw an older couple headed the same way and pretty much latched on to them. By now it's late, it's dark, and our dimly lit garage looked scarier than ever. The first bit of panic was that the elevator bay was now locked. The second? We'd have to take the stairs. We tried not to look in the corners. Once we reached our floor (we pretty much ran up those steps), and the door was unlocked (alleluia!), we hightailed to our car, which was thankfully still there and intact. In total there were six cars parked there. I guess everyone else knew better.

As we pulled out, toward the dark crumbling, twisted ramp (shudder), we couldn't help but notice some of the other theater goers running toward their cars.

So glad we weren't the only ones.

And when we go back (Phantom of the Opera is coming next year), I can tell you where we won't park.

Live and learn, right?