When I went to the ER for my hand in December I got a parking ticket. I’d put all my change in the meter but it wasn’t enough. And of course, you can’t leave the ER waiting line to go move your vehicle, even if there was some place to move it to, which there wasn’t.

So anyway I got a delinquent notice saying all sorts of nasty things, towing my vehicle, putting boots on it, etc etc.

I stopped by the city courthouse, different from the county courthouse for future reference, and parked in a spot hoping I could get in and out before I got yet another ticket. There is NO place to park downtown that isn’t charged, literally.

That freaked me out. Security confiscated my keys due to my mini leatherman. An inch and a half blade is too dangerous. I asked if the metal toothpick was forbidden too..I’ve really got to learn to subside meekly. If I had been born a slave I would have died a very young slave. I don’t think I’m smart enough to have learned to keep my self blank.

So anyway, after waiting outside for an hour and frantically moving my truck from the parking to the convenience store down the corner, I bought a candy bar so I was a customer and could park there, I finally got my turn to talk to the city clerk.

This is where it gets sort of weird. I knew the guy! It took us a while but I’d been part of the same middle school math tutoring group the past year.

I told him my circumstances, he said that since I only had the one ticket I was in no danger of getting my truck towed. It will go to collections in may and may have an additional $10 added to it by then but that’s it. He said I could also come back in may and start a payment plan on it to keep it active.
Try not to get any more tickets and don’t let it stress you out.

Whew.
Now…I’m parked at the pyschs office. I’d like to be able to get some homework done but I haven’t been able to stay in the relevant reality long enough to get anything done. I haven’t had enough of a down time to recover yet.

Back to my deep breathing calming exercises.