You're Not Worthy

One of the jobs I used to have in town required me to be at work before the trains were running, which meant driving into the city every morning. While I never had to worry about fighting for a parking spot because there aren't many cars out at 4AM, I often witnessed battles for the parking spaces I was about to vacate when I left work later that morning. It usually went like this - one car would show up the second I got into my car, almost as if a signal had been thrown up. They would pull ahead of the spot and wait to back in with their turn signal on while I started my car and drove away. At the same time a car would come from the other direction and attempt to pull in to the spot. This happened all the time and in each instance I would take sides on which car I wanted to get the spot almost immediately. Usually, I would be rooting for whichever car had been there first or whichever driver was cuter. (Either way, I wasn't motivated enough to get out of my car and tell the second person on the scene that the first car had been waiting for the spot or stick around long enough to see who eventually wound up with it.) The point is that I had a strong feeling about who would take over the space I had vacated. Even though I haven't been in this situation for years, it appears those feelings haven't left me.

As I wrote about yesterday, over the weekend I went in to the Boston Golf Expo. What I neglected to mention in that post was that I seriously lucked out with my parking space. I decided to make one drive around the area to see if I could find an open spot at a meter instead of just automatically driving into one of the many lots in the area and I found one that was damn near perfect: first spot at the start of the row, making for easy access in and out and yet still close to event. The only thing which was missing was time left on the meter. But, I wasn't about to be greedy, so I filled up the meter to the maximum two-hour limit and went inside. [Sidebar: really, City of Boston, a quarter buys you 12 minutes worth of parking? You used to get half an hour for that. It'll be 25 cents for 5 minutes before too long. Even though that totals out to be cheaper than the $12 the nearest lot was charging, still feels like a rip-off.] Turns out I didn't need all that time and came out of the Expo with about 20 minutes to spare. I figured that would be a nice treat for the next person and a little karmic "Thank You" to the universe for giving me such a nice spot. At least, that was my thinking right up until I saw the person who was about to grab my spot.

You ever just get a vibe about someone, even without formally meeting them? That was what happened here. The driver of the car which would have gotten my space came to my attention due to the loud honk of a horn as they cut a person off at the intersection at the top of the street. That was when I first saw the little BMW Sportster with the guy behind the wheel talking on his cellphone coming down the street and immediately began praying he would zoom passed me. Instead he did that slow roll behind me as I walked towards my truck which is usually reserved for mall parking lots at Christmas time and is an exceptionally bad idea on the streets of Boston, as it caused a mini-traffic jam behind him and pissed off even more people than he already had. It took all of one second for me to decide that I didn't think this guy deserved my spot and made the decision in my head to give him the wave off. Besides, I figure if anyone could afford the parking fees it was that guy. I tossed my bag full of travel literature into my truck, shook my head at the guy and headed back to the nearby convenience store to buy a drink I hadn't known I wanted until a second ago as the BMW pulled into the nearby lot.

Admittedly, it probably doesn't help that I'm a little particular about where I park my car. I have said on many occasions I can live anywhere as long as it has off-street parking because I just don't want to have to fight for a spot every day. I highly doubt I'm the only person who acts this way - a lot of people are very protective of their parking spaces. Why else would people who live in the city pay hundreds of dollars a month just to make sure they have a space waiting for them when they get home? And it is not just the spaces where people live. Ask yourself this: have you ever been waiting for a spot with your blinker on and the person in the car seems to be taking forever to get their seat belt on and go? It's probably because they don't want you to have that spot and are hoping you will get frustrated and leave.

But, at least I know this is stupid because I recognize that I don't actually have ownership of that spot and who parks there next has no reflection on me. It is not like anyone is going to say, "Oh, see how that one guy left and the next guy took the spot? That makes me think that guy in the Mountaineer and the douche in the BMW are totally BFFs. I bet the guy in the Mountaineer is just as much of a douche." Hell, it is entirely possible that the next guy to come along was even douchier, driving a Prius with a sweater tied around his shoulders. But, as is often the case in life, you can only deal with the facts you have at the moment and in that moment I just didn't want that guy to have a good parking spot. I'm sure karma wasn't happy with me and that is probably why I didn't come away with any of the dozen or so vacations I attempted to win at the Expo, but I stand by my decision. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices. As the saying goes, "With a great parking space comes great responsibility."