Where are you?

So I keep losing Patrick... this time in the UWS library.

Ok... let me explain. This isn't the first time I've lost Patrick in Swansea. Yesterday I was supposed to meet him at the bus station around 1. The bus station is right next to Tesco's where I do my grocery shopping, and I needed to get groceries as well. So I told Patrick in an email and I quote:

Why don't we aim for 1pm. My class ends at 11, so that won't be a problem. What I'll do is wander over to Tesco (which is right by the bus station) and pick up some groceries, since I'm about out (anything you want me to pickup?). Then I'll plan to drop by the bus station around 12 and check back after I'm done shopping. There is really no seating in the bus station so my advice is to walk through the parking garage (you'll see what I mean when you get there) and then there is some benches off to the left, next to Tesco, you can sit on (I'll meet you there).

So I arrived at the bus station at 12 like I had said. Noticed that the Cardiff shuttle goes out of bus stand 22 on the :15 and the :45. The 12:15 bus dropped passengers off at stand 22, but no Patrick. That wasn't a big deal since I really wasn't expecting him until 1, I checked just in case he caught an earlier bus over and to find out where the bus dropped off.

So off I went to shop, and came back around 12:40, just in time to see the 12:45 bus to Cardiff pull up, there was an elderly couple that got off the bus, but again no Patrick.

The next buses from Cardiff arrived early (it's roughly a 45 minute drive to Cardiff from Swansea with out traffic - an hour with traffic) but I didn't realize this until 2, when I saw one pull into Bay 7 to unload its passengers before heading over to stand 22 to pick passengers up.

By 2 I'm starting to get a little worried, and went to check the seating area at Tesco's just in case he slipped by me. I still didn't see him. (He says he was sitting on the ground a little ways away from the benches, but he also commented that he got up about that time to try and find me, so we probably crossed paths by accident.) So I wait and check the next 2 buses, but still don't see Patrick. Ok... now I'm more than a little stressed. (I think part of this comes from the fact that whenever I traveled with my siblings without my parents, mom always said to make sure you bring everyone home, and not to lose anyone.)

So I decide to wander over to Tesco again to see if I can see him.

And lo and behold there he is, sitting on a bench in the sun with his back to me, reading the unabridged version of The Jungle Book, listening to his Rio.

That was yesterday.

Today I had a class, and Patrick's bus left from directly in front of the university, so he just grabbed all his gear and came with me.

Well technically I told him the layout of the library and that I would find him there around 12, since he wanted to use the computers to update.

So I get out of class at 11:50 and head to the library. I enter the library and go straight through to the Study Hall where there are probably close to 200 computers set up over 2 floors for students to use. And since final papers and dissertations are due, the place is packed. I wander ALL over looking for Patrick, AND I CAN'T FIND HIM.

So I log into a computer, and email him, and add the first line of this post, hoping he'll respond.

Three minutes later, he posts Updates. So I start to hope that he's seen my post asking where he is.

Nope.

Thirty minutes later he replies to my email:

In PC room 1. Right around the corner. Facing the entry, for goodness sake. Computer 2.

PC Room 1? We have PC rooms? Right around the corner? What corner? So I log out, grab my bag, walk out of the Study Hall, and search for the elusive PC Room 1.

I find PC Room 2 & 3 but not 1.

So I head towards the information desk to ask where PC Room 1 is, and out of the corner of my eye I see it.

NO WHERE NEAR WHERE I WAS LOOKING! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT ROOM EXISTED!

And there Patrick was standing at the printer. Wondering why on earth it took me so long to find him.

AH!

Oh well, everything turned out fine, and he caught his 1 PM bus to London, where he will catch a connecting one to Oxford to hang out with John and William before he has to head back to the States.