It started with me waking up at 5:42 am. Yep, you read that right. I wanted to hit the gym before I went to work. The first thing that greeted me was the LOUD, OBNOXIOUS buzzer that’s on our oven. Yesterday, Mike and I gave in and hired a maid service to come clean our dismal house. One of the maids hit something on our oven and now the buzzer is constantly going off. We can’t figure out how to make it stop and it sounds like a fire alarm. I fiddled with it a bit, going deaf in the process, and then quickly got dressed, grabbed my keys, and left for the gym. Except, as I realized when I got down to my car, I had grabbed Mike’s keys instead of my own. I briefly considered taking his car to the gym, but I decided against it. We have tandem parking and I was parked behind him. He’s an expert at getting his car out of that position, but I’m not. As I write this, I realize how much worse my morning would have been if I’d taken his car. But I digress.

I got to the gym and started looking for street parking. Call me cheap, but I think it’s ridiculous that I have to pay to park every time I go to the gym. I’m already paying to belong to the gym, I think they can make their lot free! I saw a person get in their car and pull away from the curb, so I quickly swooped in and took their old spot. Sweet! I had a good workout, I’m trying to get back into my old habits from when I lived in NYC, I worked out HARD every morning before work. I kicked my own ass this morning, and I was feeling pretty good about myself after my workout as I walked to my car. I was fiddling with my iPod, but I happened to look up and notice a cute red VW Bug up on a tow truck. I was running before my brain actually realized it was MY cute red VW Bug. SHIT.

It turns out, you can park in front of driveways! Most people learn that lesson before they even get their learner’s permit, but no, not me. The driveway I blocked is actually very wide. Part of it is fenced in, and that was the part that, when I parked, I thought I was in front of. But, I didn’t notice the driveway had a part that WASN’T fenced in. Really observant of me. As the tow truck driver pointed out, I got there when it was dark…kind of. I saw the person parked there before me leave and I didn’t think twice about it. They were lucky, I wasn’t. Although, it could have been a lot worse. The driver was about a minute away from driving off, and I would have been TOTALLY SCREWED. My wallet and cell phone were both in the car. Mike was about to leave for work and was outside taking Rigby to the bathroom, so if I’d called from the gym I wouldn’t have reached him.

My lovely mistake cost $144 to tow truck driver and $40 to the city, thanks to the parking ticket I also received. I spent $184 before 7 am.