20 meters in 2 hours

This is the tale of how I spent 2 hours to go 20 meters today. Well, strictly I drove and walked way longer than 20 meters. But you'll see what I mean.

17:45: I have dropped some stuff off with the Workplace Van since my colleague broke his leg the other day. 20 meters back in the One Way street is my building. Easy to get home? I don't think so!

I was very illegaly parked to unload the boxes and paranoid about the traffic officer I saw two blocks back coming our way. I pulled out into the street, thinking "Now I just have to find a parking space and I'm home." That was the trouble - finding a space. Driving around my block I realized they had reserved all the spaces around the neighbour block for a movie set shooting inside the abandoned school I live next to. I'm sure it'll be developed into fancy apartments when they're done. Anyway, I started to extended my search realizing that the rest of my neighbourhood had temporary signs up, saying No Parking Tuesday from 18:00 to 07:00 due to street sweeping. They do this every spring. The few spaces left were full long ago and the streets were full of cars looking for a space to park in. Everybody had to move their cars at 6 pm, ie. now!

I then came to think of my boyfriends car, parked 8 blocks from our building (nearest free 24 hour street parking). A lot of the streets in the area had temporary No Parking signs up. I started panicking. They were going to tow the Ford and I had promised to look after it! Stuck in the van with no parking in sight, I started sweating. I decided to go home, park the van illegaly on a reserved spot belonging to an office building across the street and go move the Ford, hopefully in time. It was now 18:10. I had to go home to pick up the Ford car keys anyway and the dread of driving over to check on it with no place to leave the van was too much. I had to get rid of the van and walk over. It was either a ticket or being towed. Easy choice.

Walking the 8 blocks was a nigtmare of anxiety. What if they had just towed it? What if I was too late? I had my boyfriend on the phone from France to pinpoint the car's location so I could get to it as fast as possible. Luckily, when I got there, the temporary signs on that exact street stated No Parking Thursday 18:00 - 07:00. In other words, I have to go move it on Thursday. Crisis avoided for today.

When I got back to the van I hadn't gotten a ticket. I was almost disappointed because now I'd have to move it to avoid getting one. Not that I wished for one, after having awokened to a parking ticket on the darned thing this morning. Darned movie set!

I decided to drive over to my colleague to drop off the charger for his phone, as promised. I parked there, on the first legal space I could find. The only legal space I could find, actually. It took me 25 minutes to walk home. I could have taken the tram but wanted to stop for food on the way, so the walking was my choice. No complaining there.

When I got home, there was a free legal space on the other side of the street. It was now 19:45.