Friday, October 12, 2007

Parking Car-ma

Wednesday night I had tremendous parking karma. I showed up at Orange Coast College without a guest parking pass and figured I would just purchase a day pass from a machine when I got there. [Insert Family Feud "X" sound effect here] Wrong. OCC does not have daily parking passes like Irvine Valley College. No, instead they put in parking meters that you can feed. Two issues. I have no quarters and no metered spaces are available.

I decided to leave a note on my dash that said I was a guest speaker and that my parking pass had not come in the mail. (Which it hadn't) I left the room I was in and the instructor I was speaking for. For some time before actually speaking in front of the class, the idea of a ticket on my windshield preoccupied my thoughts. Once the questions started I found myself in presentation mode and focused on the task at hand. When I walked out to my car, there was no ticket. I smiled.

Driving home with a tension headache that is common after speaking in front of a class, I just wanted to be home and relaxed. I was going on 35hrs with no sleep. I parked my car in the guest spot and went upstairs. In the morning, I was rushing to get in the car and off to work. I didn't pay attention while driving away, but I realized as I drove home tonight and parked in the same spot that I didn't put my parking pass on the dash and could have been towed. I've already had the "Final Warning" notice left on my windshield for forgetting to put the pass up once before. (It's always in my car so it's not like I have to go anywhere to get it) Even typing this now I'm getting a flash of heat thinking what I would have had to do to retrieve the car from a tow yard. :-(

I really would be easier to live in a city where a car was not required.