Towage

Little events, little mistakes, can cause big ripples. Five and a half hears ago, I was silly and fell asleep while driving a moving vehicle, and now I can't work in Alaska in the biggest seasonal job industry there is. Five and a half years! Sometimes after the event, I like to look back on the thought process that led me to make such a mistake. It's usually quite ironic, the decision making that leads me to such fated blunders. I was driving the car because my boyfriend seemed tired, (we were both tired), and I thought, "I can't sleep cause I want to be with him as long as possible, so I'll drive and let him sleep." And yet, somehow, about fifteen minutes after I had taken over the wheel, my eyelids drooped, my focus got fuzzy, and I was swerving across the road in a daze. I then rolled and totalled the car, wrecked the relationship, and had a bloody knee and very sore neck to show for my smart thinking.

That's something of an extreme example. Probably the most extreme I have. But tonight, yet another lapse in judgement led me to park in a tow away zone, ignoring Lindsey's pleas to park in the United Way parking because I didn't know exactly where she was talking about, and I was too lazy to figure it out. Plus I guess I have this "I'm not afraid of you" sort of attitude, I want to see what I can get away with when it comes to parking and driving. Anyway, I saw the tow sign on the parking spot, but thought- 'who needs to shop at Jones and Glass at 9PM on a Friday night? No one. So why shouldn't I park there? We were only going to be two minutes, and I just didn't think it would matter. We did end up staying closer to 30 minutes, but I was not expecting the empty parking lot upon our arrival. Lindsey's' words "I feel like the car isn't here" brought little more than slight surprise as I scanned the area for my little PT. Nothing there. Realization dawned slowly, and I simultaneously fell into a state of shock and disbelief. They towed my car? Why would they do it? Why did they tow my car? Jackie came to the rescue, supplying plenty of attitude and the phone power needed to locate my poor stolen vehicle.

Okay, I'm tired and distracted and need to wrap this up. So $133 dollars later, I have my car back, as well as the knowledge that those no parking-tow away zones are serious business. I feel I learned something tonight, and created a memory to keep 1-09-09 in my mind forever. I just love having friends to share moments like this with. I love that earlier these same friends and I had a picnic on the floor of my house in the biggest Arbys binge I've ever seen. I love that money is just money, and that somehow I feel a little bit more like an adult after this experience.

But I also hope I'll think a little bit more about my actions. I always feel so bad for those people who somehow accidentally kill someone or do some other life-altering damage without meaning to, just from one stupid act they didn't even think about. I hope this new year I can be wiser, think a bit more of consequences, and laugh louder at the stupid mistakes I do make.