Monday, November 1, 2010

Parking lot courtesy....and lack there of

Isn't it just a basic rule of parking lot courtesy that when you see someone waiting for a spot with their blinker on, you move on and find your own spot?

I thought everyone knew that but apparently not everyone does.

Never in my life has anyone ever stolen a parking spot from me until last week, on Wednesday, someone had the audacity to take my spot. I was at the medical center for my 2nd prenatal visit. After circling the parking lot for a few minutes I realized that there was not a single spot in the whole place. So I did what most would do and I started stalking people who came out of the clinic to pounce on their spot. I made a few unsuccessful attempts as each already had someone pursuing the spot, or someone else was already waiting behind their car to take their spot. [clearly I was observing basic parking lot courtesy]

Lucky for me, a moment later I saw this lady nearing the back of the parking lot approaching her car. It was perfect timing. I waited to see where her car was and then parked behind it leaving her ample room to pull out. I put my blinker on so that others would know for certain that I in fact was waiting for that spot. Not a single car even came down that row so I was not at all concerned about losing my spot to anyone.

This lady however, took forever. I don’t know what she was doing but I think I listened to a whole song and a half and finished my Taco Bell dinner before she finally pulled out of the spot. It was probably about 5 minutes, and though I was tempted a few times to move on and find another spot, I kept saying to myself, “No, she’ll leave any second now.” Just as she began pulling out of the spot I put my car in drive, and began to turn my steering wheel and pull into the spot. I was about to make a left turn into her spot but of course she chose to back out toward her right making it impossible for me to pull in until she had actually completely pulled away. I was so busy watching her pull out of the spot that I didn’t even notice this white truck that had come from across the parking lot at lightning speed to steal my spot. As I started to pull in I suddenly see this truck pulling right in front of me into the spot. I give a light honk to get his attention but the guy completely ignores me. So I decide to lay on the horn while he proceeded to pull all the way into the spot, park and get out of the car!

I watched in complete amazement. Who does that? I was clearly waiting there, and my blinker was on. I even honked at you for crying out loud so if it had been a simple mistake he could have backed out and I would have understood it was an error on his part and must not have seen me at first. But clearly this was a deliberate parking spot robbery!!! How could someone seriously come from across the parking lot and take the only parking spot left in the whole place that someone else was clearly waiting for?

I was fuming! I’m pretty sure my blood was boiling. I was so enraged I wanted to do something really awful like key his car, or slash his tires or something. Now of course, we all know I would never do that, but I was so mad, I really wanted to. I’m not characteristically an angry person. I am usually the one who gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and assumes the best in people. I’m never the person who has that kind of rage that makes me want to do something like slash tires, or key someone’s car but that guy just really got under my skin! And of course, I was even more mad moments later that I was mad enough at him to want to key his car. That’s not me at all. I felt like he had not only beat me to the parking spot but he had uncovered an anger in me that I had not before possessed. Please tell me that all this anger was brought on by a true moment of injustice coupled with the hormones of pregnancy.

So a word to the wise: don’t steal parking spots from pregnant women because you never know when you might actually run across the one who will key your car or slash your tires. Pregnancy

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