So I've been driving to work most days. I'm sad and burnt out and I want to get out of the house at the last minute and get back to my dog as fast as possible. And I don't want to be late to work after I told everybody I feel better about things now that I have an exit date.
So I didn't have any parking change. So I figured I would park in the garage near to where I work (locals: the one with Little Shanghai and Atlantis in it) and pay them with folding money at the end of the day. But I saw a "No Twenties" sign on my way out (and why not on the way in?) and I knew I only had twenties so I planned to stop at Little Shanghai on the corner and buy a package of plum wafers so I would have dollars and fives and things. I was ten minutes early, everythign should be fine. But I discovered on my way in that I did not have my wallet so I would not be able to pay for parking at all. So I went back to the car and looked for my wallet in the car. No. So I had to leave. After all, if you just come in and go again they don't charge you.
I shouldn't have. I should have left the car and walked home after work and walked back to the garage later at night and paid for the accumulated parking (it's an all-day, and into the late night garage, which is another reason why I parked there: no three-hour limit). Because the lady at the kiosk demanded a quarter and I didn't have one. I had already explained why I was leaving so soon -- because I had no money for parking. She said I had been parked for ten minutes and you only get four minutes free.
She was having such a fun time telling me this. With a flourish she said, when I repeated I didn't have anything, that she wouldn't let me out of the garage until she wrote me a ticket. And she proceeded to write me a twenty dollar ticket for the failure to have a quarter. She said if I came back before three with a quarter I could pay off the ticket with it. After she already knew I didn't have a quarter and couldn't get out of work to bring one to her if I had it.
I was of course crying by then -- I was already pretty upset because I had gotten yet another condolence from someone I hadn't seen in years -- and she just got smugger and smugger.
I was nine minutes late.
It was an okay day at work, though. I realized at six, when the little boy who is usually last started asking for the ritual mommy songs, that I had not sung all day, which is really unusual, and I'm sorry for it. I'll do better tomorrow.