12:59 p.m.,
Apr. 15, 2002
Oof! I forgot that college towns are ruled by parking Nazis, not normal government officials.
So every now and then, I drive to my morning class in Evanston. When it's early, a short ride beats out a long train ride. So today, I go to leave after class. I'm in a great mood - the weather is beautiful, my classes are going great and I don't need to transfer trains at Howard.
I get in my car and see the parking jeep approaching, so I breathe a sigh of relief and begin flipping through CDs. Then this woman pulls up right next to me and yells "This is two-hour parking!"
I said "Oh, I'm just about to leave." She screams back "You'll go right now!"
Now, I do have sympathy for parking attendents. When I was an undergrad, I wrote a story about one. I followed him around for a morning and he talked to me about his parking-patrol philosophy.
See, meter maids/misters are needed. It would be total anarchy without them. I don't begrudge them their job. I wouldn't have complained if I came back to the car and there was a ticket on my car. If I broke the law, I have to pay the price. I get that.
But none of that mattered after she started screaming at me. So I said "Well, you'll have to get out of my way so I can move my car -- right now."
And then she threatened to ticket me for my big mouth (!). Her mouth is tiny, apparently.
So I pulled out and stopped right in front of her and made her wait for me to put my CD in. It was so worth it.
Grr.