space for RENT

1. It all started in the first weekend of February. Things were going great in general for the first few days of February and a bunch of friends and myself decided to have some drinks down by the University campus. I parked my car in a nearby innocent parking lot and proceeded to head off to "The Library", one of the nicer and more excellent bars by campus. After closing the bar down, I decided to just get a ride home from one of my friends. The next morning I was getting a ride back to my car and low and behold, it was gone. After a few cuss words and racing heart palpitations, I looked at the parking lot sign with all the rules and regulations. In a small 5 point font, it was stated that cars may not be left overnight in the lot. The lot sign had the towing company phone number available at the bottom, also in a very small font. I called it immediately and found out that it was going to cost $246.00 to get my car out of the towing lot. OUCH!
2. A few days later, I had a couple of beers at my friends house and then got in my car to drive home. I didn't feel like I was drunk in the least bit, especially since the two beers that I had were consumed over the duration of 3 hours. Anyway, I was on my way home and noticed that there was a police car camped out on the side of the road. I looked down at my speedometer to make sure that I was obeying the speed limits and such. No problem there...just had to make sure that I stayed between the lines at that point. I drove by the "5-0" at the exact speed limit posted. Within seconds, the cop's cherries were turned on and I was being pulled over. A female police officer approached my vehicle and asked to see my license and insurance. I presented both to her and on cue with no hesitations, she asked if I had been drinking. I told her that I had had a beer that night and that it had been a few hours earlier. She went back to her squad and returned in minutes. The next question out of her mouth was the token line, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I honestly didn't know why exactly...so perplexed, I said, "No, I'm not quite sure." She then said that my license plate light was out and that I needed to get if fixed a.s.a.p. That little, tiny light that resides above peoples license plates on the back of cars was burnt out. I thought that those lights were made to last until the car was completely destroyed. She was also nice enough that night not to give me a ticket, but said that my car would have a warning on it. So, needless to say, I was let go easy on this one...but, still managed to break the law to a small decree. The next day I scraped some cash together and got it fixed.
3. One week later, a couple of us on a Saturday night decided to go downtown to a nice restaurant/pub for dinner and some cocktails. It was 9:45 pm and parking meters were enforced until 10:00 pm. I thought that my chances of getting tagged at a parking meter at this point in the night were slim to none. Who waits around until the last few minutes to see which meters are expired and which ones are not before meters magically become free to all, especially at this time of night in the dead end of town? "A-hole" meter-cops with chips on their shoulders...that's who. So, $34.00 later...I ended up paying for it, figuratively speaking...for 15 fricken' minutes of time at the meter I ended up paying $34.00 to the city. It's my own damn fault...and YES, lesson learned.
4. Now, for the finale...I hope. Two days ago I decided to retrieve my mail which had been sitting in my mailbox for over a week and a half. I opened up a letter from violations bureau. Inside was a picture of my car at 12:59 am on February 9th cruising through a stop light. It had a close up picture of my license plate and had extra information also included in the letter such as: location of the violation, speed of my car, time of offense...the list goes on and on and on. I felt so violated!!! I have a picture of myself breaking the law...and don't even remember doing it. And I can't even try to deny these accusations because the evidence is as plain as day. The fine is $142.00...another OUCH!

I think that the next time I decide to go downtown, I may have to take a taxi or get a ride with others...because clearly in the long run, it's going to save me some money.

That's all I have to say to all of this is..."Lesson Learned!!!" I get it okay....Now, with that in mind...I really wish that the inner city fuzz decides to leave me alone for a few months...PLEASE!!! Pick on some other people for a while and let me try to make back some of the cash that I have given away in my poor decision making during the month of February.

# posted by Mikey B @ 8:56 AM 0 comments

• Safety and stability in case of earthquakes seems to be an old wives tale...which is clearly the wrong thing to do.
• The ability to view two separate rooms simultaneously.
• A good place to lean against while talking
• To "frame" ones self.
• Indecisiveness and the inability to make easy decisions, like this room or that.
• Just plain ignorance and lack of respect for other people trying to actually cross through from one room to the next.

The list goes on and on.

A good friend once told me that when you arrive to a party, bar or any get together...you should always stop in the doorway when you enter. This small pause in the door frame actually portrays as a picture frame with you as the focus. I like the whole idea of that, just as long as your "pause" doesn't turn into an eternity.

Another theory is for safety. It may be that people feel more secure about many different situations and try to remedy that uneasiness by standing in the doorway. It also gives them an "easy exit" out of uncomfortable or awkward conversations that they may be involved with. This gives them another room to escape into if worse comes to worse.

Personally, I'd like to think that it might be a combination of safety and comfort laced with indecisiveness.

Nonetheless, it always seems to happen when I need to go from one room to another. And it drives me insane when people are offended by having to move aside to let you through. I am pretty sure that I have the "right of way"...Do I not?

# posted by Mikey B @ 1:04 PM 1 comments