I'm not a good parker. I'm a good driver. I've never been in an accident and I've had enough close calls to confidently say that I know how to avoid other drivers when they start acting wack. Though, I'm unsure as to what to do when they become wiggity wack. In any case, the story isn't the same for parking. The one time I've ever hit another car with my own was trying to wedge it into a parking spot. The woman I hit was incredibly nice though. She had her three year old with her and I'd walked back to her car (after reparking) to leave a note. When she walked up, I explained what happened and handed her my information. As I walked away, her daughter asked what happened. Her response was: "That lady accidentally hit our car when she was trying to park and she was very responsible to come back and make sure we could get in touch with her if we needed to fix anything".
And that's the story of how I became a learning experience for someone. The end.
Well, not so much. See, that was back when I was 17 and just learning how to drive. Since then, I've been super squeamish about parking. Well, that and my mom was the one who taught me how to drive. I love you, mom, but well... I'm not going to finish that sentence because it can only go badly for me if I do. The point is though, there are certain... blind spots... in my driving abilities. Sometimes I try to parallel park and I end up driving at the curb at a 90 degree angle. Don't ask me how it happens. Its one of life's great mysteries. A district court judge laughed at me the other day over it. Sitting in his courtroom the next morning and realizing that he damn well remembered that I was the one with the whole "drive straight into a parallel parking spot" thing was highly embarrassing. I think he gave our client a deal out a pity. Not the point.
The point is that while backing into a parking spot is a yawn yawn blah blah activity for some people; for me it was a huge accomplishment. I was nervous as all get out, but decided that my work parking lot, with cars filling in the spots around me and plenty of space was the time to try it out. It was on my master list of things to try, just out of the sheer ridiculousness of knowing I hadn't done it before.
I'd actually love to say there was some hilarious story of how I messed it up terribly, ran into three parked cars, totaled my car and blamed the weather (wait, that was mom again), but honestly...
...I rocked it.
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