Tuesday, April 21, 2009

My rant of the day.

Grrrrrr.

Parking where we live is a JOKE.

First of all, this town pays money to a whole force of people to be the most unscrupulous Parking Nazis, ever. They can and will ticket your trash at will, so you have to be careful. I've learned most of their rules the hard way, unfortunately.

Not only are there the endless regulations and schedules to remember and follow or be ticketed or even towed (and the ticket for getting towed ain't pretty, I've seen it before and had to learn from a friend's misfortune just how to avoid it), but on our block we have a special problem. A bunch of losers who live elsewhere come park on our block to then walk to the train station from here. Hmph. Okay buddy, because you feel you have to clog our streets during the day, I have to haul my baby and my groceries over a block because I can't find a parking space when I get back from the store. Unless I get back when the train that leaves downtown at 5:15pm comes in. I often meet Grant at the stop and walk with him back home and I complain unnecessarily loudly at those hosers about what they do right in front of them. It's not one of my finer points, I'll admit and would be more Christ-like to just grin and bear it. But it's hard to remember that when you're struggling to carry a car seat and groceries and have to make multiple trips to get it all.

This problem is compounded on street cleaning days--frankly, I think they clean the streets excessively here but at least it's only actually every other week and not every week like the street signs say. But on street cleaning days the number of available spots gets cut by half because you can only park on one side of the street throughout the whole neighborhood. Awesome.

Normally I avoid the hassle by stratigically parking my car on the appropriate side of the street a couple of days in advance. So we get home from church and park on Sunday, I don't go anywhere on Monday and I don't have to worry about it Tuesday morning. I forgot to do that this week and I realized I was on the wrong side of the road. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

I was gone over ten minutes circling our blocks of one-way streets looking for a spot and the closest one I found was two and a half blocks away. I was on the verge of tears that it took me so long because I left my poor defenseless baby in the apartment for this "quick" venture. I was sure she'd be screaming and I was cursing myself for being such a bad mother for not bringing her with me to do this.

Turns out, she was still passed out in her swing, just the way I left her and looked like she hadn't even stirred in her sleep while I was gone. But still, knowing she could have been screaming and neglected scared me.

On street cleaning weeks, they do one side on Tuesday and the other side Wednesday in our zone. I'm leaving now to run to the store so that I'll arrive back at home just at the ordinance ends at 4pm. The one perk of this street cleaning halibalu is that if I plan it right, I can garuantee myself rock star parking with my baby and my groceries instead of having to haul them a block or more because of the hosers who use our block as their parking garage.

But still. The parking situation here drives me nuts.

I don't care about a big fancy house--just give me some place with off-street parking. Not even a garage, just a spot to store my vehicle. And a washer and dryer. I won't digress on that, it's a rant for a whole other day.

6 comments:

Michelle said...

Gotta be honest, I don't know how you live in an urban area. Dave and I had a long talk about this a few weeks ago because there's a chance we could end up in Boston after Ohio. And the conclusion we came too was that we are screwed if that happens. I don't even know how to buy groceries in a city!! I know there are advantages, but give me a garage, a yard, and a huge laundry room any day!! ;)

Kristina said...

That is way annoying. When we lived in Provo people would park in our parking lot and then walk to campus for football games and stuff. It was super annoying to not be able to find a spot when there should have been more than enough spots. It was also super annoying because we lived across from the Seminary building and all the moms would illegally park their mini-vans on BOTH sides of the street to pick up their kids. It was almost impossible to drive down the street at that time and I hated it!
Anyway, I'm a firm believer that mom's and pregnant women should get to park in handicap parking or that they should have some kind of special parking too :P

Belkycita said...

Yucks I am so sorry!!
It happens here in Seattle all the time, even us that have assigned parking spots in our building!! when the landlord has his meetings he lets everyone park in our spots, I about eat him, spit him out, re-eat him, for like three times! then I feel bad for not feeling bad for yelling at a veteran.
But seriously people!!!!!

ok, now a little tip. I buy groceries and have them pack everything that needs to go in the fridge in a different bag as everything else. I come home and bring that bag upstairs and Dave gets the rest when he gets home.

Beckie said...

I totally agree! Parking is horrible.
or how about that you have to buy a city sticker, and some places you also have to have a sticker for your street!

However, there is great parking on our street! (hint) and our neighbor next door to us is looking to rent her small three bedroom home. And she was hoping we would know someone... (hint hint)
(by the way - there is no garage but again, the street parking is great)

sorry you had to circle and circle leaving your baby! I would have been a wreck!

Scott and Kel said...

Ok, first off, I totally know this is a serious issue, but just the way you write it had me laughing at your dilemma. I'm sorry! I am so thankful the biggest pain I have ever had to deal with parking wise with a baby is parking right in front of my building and climbing the 4 sets of stairs over and over to get everything. Some day sweetie, some day!!

Laura said...

Yuck! That really stinks!!! I would've been crying too! I wonder if you could move and sublease it (is that the correct terminology?).