Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bummer of a way to end a Monday...

One of the things that I hate about living in the city is parking.  Let me shoot you straight: it stinks!  You can either pay $150+ a month for a spot in a garage of your choice OR you can rely on street parking.  When I got married and moved to Chicago, I inherited how I would live in the city based on how my husband had been living in the city...street parking being what I inherited.  All winter long it was no big deal parking on the street, for the most part we always found a place to park.  As the weather has gotten nicer, the spots have become few and far between.

On Sunday night after Bible Study it took me 25 minutes to find a spot to park...SERIOUSLY?!  And that spot was not close to our apartment.  Yesterday (Monday) I went out to get the car to bring it to our apartment so that I could put my sewing machine in it (I was supposed to go to a sewing class that I had long awaited for...) and when I arrived where I parked my car, it was gone.  Gone.  GONE-ZO.  UGH!  There's no way that I could try to explain it to you here in blogland but at the time I parked my car, I couldn't see the sign that was telling me that it was a towing zone between 8am-4:30pm (and I'm still not 100% sure that I think the sign is completely legit for where I parked, but that's the city of Chicago and their parking: SHAD-EEEE).  

Great.  Not only was the car towed (which was way bad enough) but I didn't have any way to get to my sewing class and now I had to worry about how I'd get our car.  Again, Stephen is amazing and he took care of getting the car for us, this is a good thing because when he came home at 9:30 (yes, it took him forever to find the impound and to get the car) he shared with me how SHAD-EEEEE the impound was and he'd never be okay with me and a friend going alone to get it.  

I had to call JoAnn's and try to reschedule my class.  That was fun.  This was me on the phone, "Hi, I am registered for a sewing class tonight and I went to get my car to come to the class and I realized that it had been towed.  I now have no way to get there and I need to try to get my car and I was wondering if I could reschedule...?"  The first person I talked with accidentally hung up on me when they tried to transfer the call, and because my phone is on silence I didn't hear the disconnect beep and I sat there for a good 5-7 minutes trying to be patient until I realized that I wasn't hearing any of the annoying on-hold music and I looked down and saw that I was no longer on the phone with anyone.  Cool. 

I redialed and finally got ahold of the girl who I needed to talk to...again, I said, "Hi, I am registered for a sewing class tonight and I went to get my car to come to the class and I realized that it had been towed.  I now have no way to get there and I need to try to get my car and I was wondering if I could reschedule...?"  Her response????  "You are now the second person to cancel for the class tonight and now we no longer have enough people to have the class but because it is too late of notice for us to cancel it, we have to have it.  I mean, I guess there's nothing you or we can do about your situation so you'll have to reschedule."  
GEEZ.  WHO PEED IN YOUR WHEATIES THIS MORNING?!
Didn't she hear me when I told her my car was towed?!  Trust me lady, I would MUCH rather come to your sewing class than pay $160 for the towing (add another $60 ticket that was on the car)!  

Don't you wish you had my Monday afternoon/evening?  According to Stephen, "It could be worse...the car could've been stolen."  Oh Stephen, always making that lemonade out of those sour lemons!  Good thing I have him, I tend to take the lemons and beat them to a bloody pulp leaving lemon juice, seeds and insides in a giant mess for me to clean up later.  Here's to a better Tuesday!


8 comments:

  1. kari. that is horrible! another reason i would not last a week in the big city. i have enough anxiety about getting towed in lexington, much less, having to drive 25 mins to park to go home! sweet sassy molassy!

    and i want to hear all about your sewing class.
    once you get to go that is.. :)

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  2. oh Kari - That's terrible! So bummed for you that you ended up missing your sewing class. Seriously, I love Chicago, but there are some shady things that go down there with the city government. My sister always has some sort of story to tell me. Hope your Tuesday is better!

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  3. hey kari! i just stumbled accross your blog and wanted to let you know that it's adorable! can't wait to read more!! :)

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  4. Ugh, totally hear you on this issue! I can't believe your car actually got towed, what the heck?? I hate the parking/ticketing/taxes in this city! And don't forget you have to have a new city parking sticker by June 30th, they're on sale now...another way they can get our money!

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  5. oh my. that totally stinks. :( What a bummer. I live about an hour from you, but it's far enough away that I can't call myself a city girl by any stretch!! I always wondered how you get groceries when you live in the city!! (My grocery runs fill my trunk!) What if you had to park far away on a grocery run? ack!

    So sorry about your sewing class!! :( I hope you can reschedule!!

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  6. oh wow, what a crummy situation! I can't help but laugh at the phone situation-I have totally done that before and felt so dumb for still talking to no one, or in your case just sitting there! Kind of like talking to someone who has walked away from you without knowing--so embarrassing!
    Thanks for stopping by my blog! Following yours : )

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  7. you poor thing!!! so sorry! i was hoping you were going to say you got a ticket or something... a ticket even sounds better than a tow! good for stephen... drinking up some lemonade!

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  8. I'm so sorry you had such a rough Monday Kari. I hope your Tuesday was better! Yes, we DID have a lovely Mother's Day Tea. It was actually a friend's idea - much easier and relaxed than hosting a whole meal! Thanks for stopping by Windy Poplars yesterday. Always fun to see you!

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