Well, apparently yesterday at about 5:30am, the phone rings here at Ron and Amber Central (otherwise known as the Kitty Condo or the Love Shack). Note that this didn't affect me as I'm away on business, but Amber does answer the phone - fearing for the worst. Well, apparently, it's Ellen. The conversation went something like this:

Amber "huh?"

Ellen "Amber, are you awake?"

A "It's 5:30am, what's wrong? whose dead?"

E "No one's dead. I need a favor. I called because I called the !$%#$%^@ cab company and they can't get a cab here in time for us to make the plane."

A "okay..."

E "So, can you and Ron come a pick up the Cruiser from the airport?"

A "okay..."

E "It's parked in garage 2, 1A. right by the entrance. You can't miss it."

Now - I'm going to end the conversation there, because it was just over additional details about the cats and all. However, I want to jump to the next part of the story. This occurs roughly 15 hours later. Mark the fateful last words of Ellen...

Me "Here's the entrance." Note that I had a fun idea to just drop Amber off and have her run into the Cruiser so we could save everyone the cost of getting out of the garage, but I couldn't see it, so I decided to just drive in. Turns out this was a wonderful idea.

Amber "I don't see it. It's in 1A and we're in 1J.

M "I thought it was right by the entrance"

A "So did I. Are there other entrances?"

M "I don't see any. Let's just drive to 1A and see what we find."

So, we drove around, looking at the handing numbers on the pillars holding up the floors above us. What, to our surprise, do we discover? THERE IS NO FRIGGIN' 1A IN THIS #@$%^@# GARAGE!!!! Well, this is disturbing. We put our heads together and figure out another plan. We'll just drive the whole garage looking for the Cruiser. After all, how hard can this be? It's a maroon Cruiser with a cat skeleton wrapping the whole way around it. So, off we go...

M "I'm not seeing it on the first level. Do you suppose she's in the other garage?"

A "No, she said Garage 2, 1A"

M "Well, we haven't found 1A or another entrance..."

A "I know, but we can't leave until we find it"

M "Hey - what's that over there. It looks like another part of this garage."

A "Yeah - but how do we get to it?"

M "Dunno, let's drive up and see if we can get to it."

Well, it turns out that once you go to the third level of the garage, you can drive over to this other section. Then, if you drive the wrong way down a ramp, guess what? Hidden, right next to the 1A pole (but not really near the entrance) is a maroon Cruiser with a cat skeleton on it.

So, what do we learn from this little escapade?

1 - Don't get directions from Ellen at 5:30am.

2 - If you do get directions from Ellen that early, assume that going in the main entrance to anything isn't what she meant by entrance.

3 - Dulles has the worst parking garage plan ever devised