The cost of laziness

My spacey brain cost me $84 yesterday.

I had to park my car around the block two nights ago because there were no spaces in front of our apartment. The next morning, I didn’t want to walk that far in my heels so my morning logic said, Mark’s in central Washington – just take his car (parked out front) to work. Genius! I hopped in his car and drove to the office. An uneventful day passed and as I was a block away from the apartment on my drive home, an awful, awful thought occurred to me: I had parked my car on the school side of the street the night before, which is illegal during the hours of 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. I panicked and thought certainly my car must be towed by now. I talked myself out of the initial panic – if I assume the car is towed, seeing the empty parking spot won’t be such a shock – and went into problem solving mode. Small group is at 7:30 – who can I call to take me to pick up the car?

After what seemed like a miles-long block, I rounded the corner onto the street where I’d parked the night before – and there was my car, still sitting in its spot. Mocking me – I’m still here!

But I wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet. A telltale envelope peeked at me from beneath my windshield wiper. A ticket is better than a towing, I thought. But a closer glance revealed the envelope contained not only one ticket but two. Both infractions are still better than an impounded car (trust me, I know – our car was towed during our honeymoon and wasn’t THAT a shock to come back to) but are nonetheless a blow to the wallet.

So in conclusion, laziness doesn’t pay. In fact, it’s quite costly.