Note to Self: You Can Never Have Enough Quarters

This afternoon I had an eye exam in the city. Although the office is located not too far from where I live, it's far enough away that suburban luxury parking transitions into a quarter per fifteen minutes. My boyfriend accompanied me since he had the day off. As soon as I put the car in park, I searched various compartments in my car for quarters to drop in the meter. I found two. That will be plenty, I thought. But two quarters only bought me a half-hour of parking space. Ricky rummaged through his pockets and found one more, so we upped our legal parking time to forty-five minutes.

I was already a few minutes late since driving through Davis Square in Somerville, MA consists of driving a few feet and then waiting with your foot on the brake as pedestrians fly at you from all angles, seemingly out of nowhere. Due to my already accomplished tardiness, I decided forty-five minutes was more than enough. We seemed to be out of quarters anyways.

After ten minutes with the eye doctor, he told me he was going to dilate my pupils and then have me back in his office after about twenty-five minutes to check for something or other. I got a headache in the waiting room, everything was blurry, and I was just generally pissed off that I had to wait. I forgot about the parking meter.

Fifty minutes later, as we were walking towards the car, I spotted the meter lady. Even though the parking lot was practically empty, she was writing tickets, justifying her job. As soon as my car was in sight, I noticed the dreaded orange envelope tacked on my windshield. Great. What's it gonna be, fifteen bucks? Twenty?

It was thirty.

Note to self: Keep plenty of quarters stashed in car at all times. The meter lady doesn't care if you got your pupils dilated and had to sit in the waiting room for an extra half hour. You can't dispute it, you just gotta pay it.

Also, if you are angry at the ticket residing on your windshield and decide to throw it out the window while you are driving away or let it sit on the counter for the next few months, you will end up owing even more than thirty bucks. So just pay it. And next time, make sure you have quarters.