Moment of the Week
Whether you live, work, visit, or just can imagine… the traffic in NYC can be horrendous. I spend most of my driving time in Brooklyn, which in my opinion, is the worst of the boroughs. My commute to work is literally 7 minutes. The time it takes for me to find parking can range from immediately (but that’s rare) to 25 minutes (that’s the amount of time I have before I need to be in my building for work). There are times when I don’t find parking and have to park on a side that is getting cleaned that day. What that means is that I have to go out and move my car during my lunch break. This doesn’t make the task of finding a spot any easier, everyone else is scrambling at that time to find a spot for their car as well, it just adds on to the agony of driving and driving and driving around.
Well, Monday was that day. After pushing the limits of time until I absolutely needed to park somewhere so I wouldn’t be late, I found myself back out again during my lunch break. I tried everywhere. I even went to the far ends of my emergency (because it’s SO far away) backup streets to find parking. Notta. Nothing. After driving around for 35 minutes, I had to give up. I’ve learned the hard way that the cheapest parking ticket to get is parking in a meter spot. (It’s about $100 less than parking on a street cleaning side ticket!) So I did just that, even though that was tough enough to find. Making the hike back to work, I passed a pizzeria. Since I hadn’t eaten and I my lunch break was just about up, I stopped for a quick slice. Picture this… a woman in heels speed walking while eating pizza when suddenly, a chunk of hot cheese flies up at her face. What would you do? Same as me, you grab that cheese as quick as you can so you don’t get a 3rd degree burn. So as I was doing just than, the rest of the pizza decided to fall onto the sidewalk. Seriously? Seriously? I had taken just 2 bites.
Needless to say, I wasn’t ready to laugh just yet and was a bit of a grouch for the rest of the day. Hey, I still had a parking ticket to get back to at the end of the day! Or did I?
About 4 hours later, I found myself walking back to my car and ready to go home. As I got closer and closer my heart started to dance because I couldn’t see the bright orange ticket envelope on my windshield. When I finally got to my car, I couldn’t see it because I didn’t get a ticket!! How that is possible considering where I parked is beyond me. It’s amazing what little things can take you to the edge and what little things can bring you back.
So I am not sure what the exact moment was in this post… the driving, the pizza, or the lack of a ticket? But it made for a good story, atleast for those people who have felt the same pain of driving in the city.
What was your moment of the week?
P.S. I have weighed out many commuting options… walking, subway, biking. For my situation and because of the winter, driving is the best. 😦
