Parking Woes

This post was lying in my drafts from a long time. Finally posted it.

Ability to park correctly is a talent. I am sure guys agree to this since they know feel that girls cannot park properly. And I used to detest to that statement so much until I witnessed it. A friend of mine who owned a car from 4+ years and had been driving regularly came to drop me home once. She had to parallel park her car on the road since we don’t have a separate parking space for visitors. She kept trying for 10 mins when I suggested that I could get down and direct her to park. I tried directing her to park for another 10 mins after which she gave up. She let go off her ego and asked me if I could park for her. I did it in a minute and as we got down she confessed that this was the first time she ever attempted to parallel park in her entire life. I was kinda taken aback since I had hardly driven but still had parallel parked plenty of times. I seriously felt that she lied in order to hide her inability to parallel park.

I never found parking to be a big problem. I always parked properly, whether it was parallel parking or not. Initially my dad would guide me but now I can park easily without any effort. Some of my guy friends have appreciated my driving too. But why don’t many girls drive well and why do they find it so hard to park?

Anyway, coming back to parking woes. I wanted to have breakfast at Ihop one day and went there on a weekend morning. I could not find parking and after going round and round the parking lot, I gave up. But I really wanted to have something in Ihop and went to another Ihop restaurant which was more than 5 miles away. Luckily I found parking but there were too many people waiting for table and the approximate wait time was more than 35 mins. I was too hungry to wait for such a long time and decided to drop the plan and have somewhere else.

Next day, I got up early and headed towards the Ihop close to my house thinking that I will have my breakfast there atleast today. As soon as I came, I saw a huge car taking reverse which meant that I would be getting that spot 🙂 I waited for the car to leave and when I was getting ready to park my car there, another guy came and parked his car. He had just entered the lot but stole my spot right under my nose. Then I thought I will try to park in another spot, where another guy was also taking reverse. But by the time I reached that spot, some other guy parked. I lost the second spot since I was waiting for the first spot. Both these guys had come to the lot after I came but still stole my spots.

But by this time, I was really annoyed that my plan of having food there was again getting canceled. I decided not to quit this time. I swore that I will not leave until and unless I have my breakfast there. I exited the parking lot, took a right turn, then another right turn and one more right turn and came back to the road. I spent some 5 mins doing this. By the time I entered the parking lot again, I saw two cars taking reverse. I waited for the first one but again someone stole my spot. This time I pressed the accelerator hard and rushed into the second spot, before anybody could steal it from me. Finally I managed to park the car and I had my breakfast there, even though I had to wait for 15 mins. I remember the Seinfeld episode where George fights for a spot. I must have really shouted at the people who stole my spot, not once but thrice. 😦

Parking can sometimes be really problematic especially when you are sandwiching your tiny car in between two gigantic SUVs or trucks 🙂 I have never tried to park a SUV so far. I am sure that will be challenging. I have tried parallel parking huge cars though and it was pretty challenging. I had once banged my car to a lady’s while trying to take it out of the parking spot. She thankfully was not mad, even though her car got a dent. I had once hit a grandpa’s car too but he was very sweet and did not shout. Parking lots are pretty dangerous since there are some people like me who are also busy trying to remember a singer’s name while listening to a song on radio.

Cartoon taken from http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cb/predestined-parking.gif