City Parking

Chou and I have a love/hate relationship with living in the city. It's so convenient to everything. We can walk to market for groceries, countless restaurants for a dinner out, church, the playground, and the dog park. And if anything is too far to walk, it's not a far drive. We live in an incredibly affordable house, have little yard work, and (generally) like our neighbors. Everything seems blissful, and then the city spits in our face and I'm reminded that someday we'll have a real yard. Four walls to ourselves that aren't shared with neighbors. Our own clean air to breathe. And, most importantly at the moment, a parking space just for us. 

Last month, Chou went to leave for work only to have his car refuse to start. He took my car for the day and called our amazing friend/mechanic who was able to come fix it, but not before it was ticketed for being in the way on street cleaning day.

Two weeks later, I had a terrible cold and decided to sleep in. I woke up at 10am to the sound of the street cleaners ticketing my car. Having your car ticketed for being parked at your house while you're sick in bed is just plain wrong.

This week I was determined not to get ticketed again. I headed out in the pouring rain (yes, they clean in the rain. Unless my car is already moved. Then they don't...) to move my car directly across the street, less than 15' from where it was parked. I ran out, turned on the car, and watched in disbelief as my lousy neighbor backed up (the wrong way on a one way street) my entire block to steal my spot before I could even pull out. Chou says I should have played chicken. He's probably right. Instead E and I got to park on a street parallel to ours and get soaked twice - both parking it and moving it back. Darn neighbors.

Here's to our future driveway.