we've all played the games such as moving your car in and out of visitor parking every 30 minutes while visiting someone at Belmont, moving your car out of King Henry parking at 11:00 pm while University Parking does their scan for cars without permits and then moving it back when they've left, or parking on a random street you hope they don't check - all to avoid a $25 ticket because who wants to park on 3rd north and walk forever to go visit your Arlington friends (obviously, I've spent my fair share of time in the Belmont/Arlington area).
I have found myself pretty lucky to have never received a parking ticket (or speeding ticket) and know that it makes others pretty envious. It seems everyone has been ticketed, booted, or towed, except me...until now.
Here's how it happened. Breck was having a small crisis and since I made it worse after a short phone call I went to visit my favorite Arlington boys. Breck told me about the perfect parking spot - close to Arlington and they didn't ticket/tow until 12:30 AM and no one ever parked there - a dream come true.
I arrived and sure enough the sign said no parking between 12:30 - 5:30 am - how had no one ever thought of this before? I parked, we watched some basketball, solved the problems of the world and then Breck and Alex were kind enough to walk me back to my car.
The whole way to my car we talked about this amazing parking spot and Alex was ready to start using it himself. Around the corner we went, and there it was - the dreaded yellow envelope. We were all completely confused and the only explanation was that I was too far away from the curb (I admit, I'm not always the best when it comes to parking).
We got to the car, I read the ticket and it was for parking in a permit-only zone. I was ticked. I had until 12:30, and it was only midnight. Just as I'm ready to choose my witnesses to call to the stand, we read the sign again. "Parking by Permit Only. No Parking 12:30 AM - 5:30 AM". Oh...Apparently, we only read what we wanted to see and didn't bother with the first and most important line.
so much for an awesome parking spot - you'll just have to keep walking.
