Unless I am very intentional about it, I am highly prone to forgetting where I parked in a parking garage. This is worse than forgetting in a parking lot because at least in that instance, you can scan the whole of it visually all at once.
When I was in my 20s, a friend gave me her own trick, and it has steered me to sharp parking-lot-memory ever since. “Before you leave your car, you have to say the floor you’re on in the voice of the Sesame Street Count.”
“Two Blue! Ah! Ah! Ah!”
Works like a charm every time. I have done this for almost 20 years. My trick of the trade, if you will.
And for many years, I’ve enjoyed telling this parking garage hack to young adults, as if I am bequeathing wise knowledge that will enrich their lives for decades. Recently, however, I had two young adults in my car, and when I pulled into the parking garage, I said,
“Can I tell you a trick for remembering where you park in a parking garage? When I tell you, you’ll never forget it.”
Simultaneously, they said,
“Mark it on your phone?”
“Take a picture of it?”
And friends, in this moment, I knew I fit that article from a few years ago — that one that called people my age, “Geriatric Millennials.” My parking lot wizardry is discontinued. My ways are obsolete.
There are times, however, when we honor our commitments in this lifetime, and we faithfully pledge to be who we want to be in the world. So forever and always (unless I’m on a different floor all together):
“Three Orange! Ah! Ah! Ah!”
— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 