cambridge parking

april fools made me the biggest fool of the year. this whole week i was thinking "when april comes around we're going to have to watch out for street cleaning and towing." then when march 31 came and went i lost track of the date and the day of the week. when i biked home from work on wednesday, happy that i had avoided any office pranks, i realized that it was April, and it was wednesday, and i either parked on the wednesday or thursday side.

my car wasn't there. i did park on the wednesday side.

later last night i made a familiar trip to pat's towing. i hate tow lots. they should be a service, not a punitive predatory operation. they're like debt collectors - they take something precious from you to get something precious. i'm so used to picking up my car from a tow lot that i'm almost cheery when i enter the office, which surprises them every time. i ask whether they got a lot of cars on april fool's day, and they briskly reply "37 cars today." that's more than $3000...three grand a day for taking other peoples' property.

this morning, i was parked on the thursday side of the street, which was empty because everyone moved their cars to the wednesday side. i got up at 7:40 to drive around to look for a spot, but of course no one leaves for work that early, and the other half of the neighborhood was also driving around looking for spots. after 15 minutes circling in my neighborhood, i just parked my car at the edge of my street, almost into the crosswalk. i figured that the police were more interested in towing cars parked on the street cleaning side rather than someone parked slightly too far out. the funny thing is, there were about three tow trucks from pat's towing doing their thing, circling and looking for victims. i actually saw a car that i recognized (because it was beat up and had decals) being towed. that guy is going to be pissed.

the only redeeming thing from yesterday was that i bought a pair of pants from express with a $10 sale and another $10 coupon. and the gay salesman commented to me, "oh my god i'm so jealous. you have one of THOSE. i do not have one of those." (he meant i had a butt.)