Friday, March 11, 2011

I'm #1

This is my parking permit sticker.

It's a VERY important thing in Somerville because they will ticket you anywhere, anytime. They looooooooove to give out parking tickets. And baby, these tickets ain't cheap.

I used to be a #2, which I assume is a district-within-Somerville thing. Now I'm a #1.
I have had very VERY bad experiences at the Parking Authority office. There have been times of almost-yelling and almost-crying. I indicate "almost" because much like not messing with your wait-staff if you don't want pubic hair in your food, I know better then to antagonize the older ladies at the parking authority. So! It is with great pleasure that I tell you the short story of the the briefest amount of time I've ever spent at that office:

I left work about 15-20 minutes early a couple of Thursdays ago (Thursdays are the only days the office is open past 4pm). I got there, went inside with some documentation (proof that I live where I live) and I was 4th in line - which is pretty good for the last day you can renew your sticker. And someone in front of me said something about her registration -and I realized I had left mine in the car! NOOOOOOOOOO! And in the meantime about 8 or 9 people had gotten in line behind me. So, I left the office, went back to my car to get my registration and came back to the office and went to the back of the line, which had grown. Then the dude who had been behind me before nodded to me to get back where I had been (in the coveted position of "next"). I looked in disbelief. Other people in line were also nodding. So I went to the head of the line. At the parking Authority, people. Do you see how crazy this is? I was next in line. Then I was being helped. Then I was walking out with my sticker and guest passes. All with my jaw hanging open in shock. WOW.

People. They can be really good.


UNRELATED: So there was a huge earthquake in Japan, and there are aftershocks and tsunami warnings happening right now. Um, has anyone else noticed that the earth seems kind of pissed off recently? Perhaps we should all get on appeasing her?

ALSO UNRELATED AND LESS-WORLDLY: Is everything delicious if you roll it in breadcrumbs and fry it up? I went to a restaurant in Harvard yesterday (The Cellar) after work with A (from work) and we had chicken/thyme croquettes and damn were they fine. The combination of crispness and soft-warm-gooeyness is just exactly right and appealing. Mmmmm. We also had all of the beets in the world (which is a few too many for me) and lots and lots of tiny rosemary french fries.

UNRELATED AND MORE SPENDY: This morning I got up early and ordered an iPad. Yes, that's right. My computer has been sucking almost since I got it and it was a super-cheap Dell and I feel like this new beautiful thing will kick my computer's ass. Plus, if I need to do word processing I can still use my computer but now it's shitty slowness won't inhibit my enjoying the interwebs. PLUS! I got the 3G compatible model so maybe at some point I can even cancel my internet service. Huzzah!

3 comments:

gilana said...

Wow, that's pretty amazing! Glad to hear it's possible for things to go well there.

Aaron and I are currently trying to figure out some way that Somerville will let him park his car at my house more than twice a week. Ugh. I never thought that having a boyfriend with a car could be a bad thing!

Leslie said...

Well even if you can't drive you can go to the parking authority and get passes... can't he park there more often then?

Wonderland said...

Congrats on the tablet! I can't wait for a review.