September 14 10

About nine hours ago. (from when I first started writing the post…um, 7:17ish)

If you are playing at home, about 9 hours ago, was, well, just after 10am.

It was at this time that drove around the urbanmoms.ca office looking for a parking spot. The driveways, if any, are narrow. The streets have all sorts of rules. No parking before ten. No parking on certain sides of the street. No parking after 12:01 am. There are lots of signs everywhere. And I? I am an obeyer of signs. Thus the 15 minutes of circling. A suburban girl have no business trying to park a minivan in the city. I am just saying.

So, I finally found a spot that was going to work. I got out. I checked the back of my van. I checked the front of my van. CLEAR. Whew. And then, the woman appeared. She has full-on stink FACE; stink eye was not sufficient for her.

“YOUR CAR IS BLOCKING MY DRIVEWAY.”

No, lady, actually, it is not. Not even a little bit.

“YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TO MOVE YOUR CAR.”

Like hell I am.

“YOU CAN PARK OVER THERE, WHERE THERE’S TONS OF ROOM.”

Holy hell, I’m not caffeinated enough to start a war with a geriatric who probably shouldn’t still have a license anyway.

I moved my car, while flashing her my best stink face. And she watched. From her front porch. To make sure I was doing as I was instructed.

I may have flipped her the bird as I walked away.

(But, you can’t prove it.)

When I got back to my car at 3pm, I discovered THIS:

Well, SHIT.

So, there are a few things wrong here. Firstly, PARK LONGER THAN THREE (3) HOURS is not a rule that has any signage at all. Anywhere. It’s one of those laws that when you look it up, it’s listed under “parking laws that don’t require any signage.” Oh, you think I’m making this up. I assure you, I am not. It’s a law that I just should know.

I probably need to enroll in Parker’s Ed.

Now, my silly parking ignorance aside, there is something we should note here. The timestamp on the ticket. It’s 10:10am. Remember my tweet? The one about the bathrobed stink-faced lady giving me the third degree about where my car was parked? Well, that all went down minute before.

She totally called the Parking Police on me.

Because I may have flipped her the bird as I walked away.

(But, you can’t prove it.)

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  1. OH my goodness!!

    Comment by Heather on September 14, 2010
  2. That sucks. But also, didn’t know the office was about 2 blocks from my house! Must have been one of my neighbours lol
    .-= Kathy´s last blog ..Survived the first week back for all of us =-.

    Comment by Kathy on September 14, 2010
  3. Bitch!
    Parking outside our last apartment required us to get up every morning at 8am and move our car to the opposite side of the street. Hardcore suckage.

    Comment by MonsteRawr on September 14, 2010
  4. If it makes you feel any better; yesterday morning I received two, yes, TWO, parking tickets within two hours. FML.

    Comment by Heather B. on September 15, 2010
  5. Sighhh, that’s Yonge & Lawrence area for you! Brutal.

    Comment by Haley-O (Cheaty) on September 15, 2010
  6. I hate people like that. You should TP her house or something.

    Comment by Kristabella on September 15, 2010
  7. Oh dear, that’s awful. Perhaps next time keep the bird to yourself.

    Comment by jennifer on September 15, 2010
  8. The rules in my neighborhood are JUST LIKE THIS. Also, I’m a cranky lady who is obsessed with who is parking in front of my house. Only, I don’t confront them. I just passive aggressively rant (and maybe tweet) about them.

    Comment by Rhi on September 15, 2010
  9. I’ve been ticketed on that bylaw. Apparently you cannot park more than 3 hours anywhere in the city.

    That being said, you were about 3 blocks from where I used to live! And it is a coincidence – the parking police are out in the neighborhood constantly, as people park and take the subway!

    Comment by Naomi on September 15, 2010
  10. What a bitch! Why do people get so obsessed about parking by their houses/driveways? Where I live there is no parking in our courts. However, when they redid the roads, we had no choice but to park there. The lady across the court kept on calling security about people (her neighbors) parking in front of her house. She obviously didn’t like his allowing of it, because the entire time construction was going on, she parked her car in front of her house to make sure no one else did!
    .-= Hilary´s last blog ..Lesson of the day =-.

    Comment by Hilary on September 15, 2010
  11. That’s crazy. I live in the city and have to park on the street, but I would never give anyone a hard time about parking in front of my house. As far as I’m concerned, street parking is first come, first served.

    Comment by tamara on September 15, 2010
  12. That sucks! You should so egg her house. Or at least take your dog to do his business on her door stoop.

    Comment by Arica on September 15, 2010
  13. That blows! And this is why I hate parking downtown.

    Comment by Nenette on September 15, 2010
  14. i know that rule cuz i…um….call the parking guys regularly. I’M SORRY OKAY??? i am really tired of not even being able to park on my street because of the ‘visitors” who stay all the time.

    i also don’t get the people who own a garage and don’t use it. you have a $30,000 car that you leave out in the weather and are sheltering $300 worth of crap in your garage.

    now, i don’t get all stink-faced (in public anyway) but i paid for my parking and i should be able to park close-ish to my house. i do think she was a little ’round the bend tho’.

    Comment by Julie on September 15, 2010
  15. I once called the cops on someone who full on did park in front of my driveway so I could even get out, and the cops did nada.
    .-= melissa´s last blog ..Fashion =-.

    Comment by melissa on September 15, 2010
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