the thin line between optimism and delusion…

I went to Nashville this past weekend for my sweet friend Sarah’s bachelorette party.  We had a wonderful time.   Friday afternoon I drove to the ATL and rode the rest of the way to Nashville with Cristina and Ben, who were going up for Steeplechase.  Cristina lives in a townhome in buckhead with her brother.  I met her at her house, we loaded everything up into Ben’s car, and left my car and Cristina’s car in the parking lot.  The parking lot was not crowded, and there was nothing to indicated that any of the parking spaces were specifically assigned to any particular townhome.  Shoot, there were barely lines drawn. 

Cristina told me that it didn’t matter where I parked, as there were not designated parking spaces. 

I rode back with the bachelorette girls, and yesterday afternoon when I arrived at my car there was a note on it that said:

"Whoever owns this car, I am calling to have it towed.  Paula Somethingorother Apt. B-1"  (the townhome I was parked in front of).    The note was dated Friday 5/11. 

As I am searching for my keys and feeling chastised for no good reason, a woman emerges from Apt. B-1.  We’ll call her Paula. 

Paula:  Is this your car?

Me:  Yes!  I’m so sorry about the car, my friend lives right there and she indicated that it was okay for me to park here and we’ve been out of town all weekend.  But I’m moving it. 

Paula:  Well, you know you can’t just park anywhere.  This is my parking space and even though I don’t live here all the time I don’t appreciate you parking in my spot.  (throws her hands up like she is exasperated)

Me:  Well, I apologize, but the spaces are not marked and there are no signs indicated that some parking is for residence and some parking is for guests. 

Paula:  There is plenty of parking down there, you could have parked down there.  (pointing in front of her neighbor’s house).  The spaces in front of each unit are assigned to that unit. 

Me:  Like I said, I had no way of knowing that this was not an acceptable place to park. 

Paula:  Well, it better not happen again, I had to park elsewhere this weekend, which I don’t appreciate. 

Me:  DON’T WORRY. 

Now, what I want to to know is, did she really let the fact that I parked my car in front of her house ruin her whole weekend?  I get the feeling that she did.  She was waiting on me to come back to my car.  Plus, I think she might have had to walk an extra ten to fifteen feet because of my inconsiderateness.  She was older, but she didn’t look crippled.  Plus, I apologized immediately and was as polite as I could possibly be.  I just wonder, did it make her feel better to yell at me about it? Obviously nothing I could say was going to make it better.   How do people get through life if they let trivial things like parking spots eat them alive inside?  I hate being repremanded, it hurts my feelings.  Especially when I wasn’t doing anything wrong. 

Regardless, I’d have been mad as a hornet if she’d towed my car.