Don't Quit Your Day Job
"Event Parking $25"?!
There is NO WAY I'm going to suddenly pay $25 today to park where it was $5 on Friday. So i drive on by and keep looking. "$15"? No, that's triple. "$20"? No. What the hellio is going on today? How big can a convention be if I've not heard anything about it? Why are they jacking up the parking lots? This is absoludicrous.
I circle the block... $20, $15, $25. No. i zig-zag... $25, $15, $30! No. i backtrack all the way to the co-located building about ten blocks away from our main HQ and pull into the $3 lot there, but the machine says it wants $15. No way. No no no. I'm not paying triple what i normally pay and then QUINTUPLE what this lot normally charges. That's ridunkulous.
i make a wider circle... $20, $30, $25. I am nOt going to submit. Actually, i can't afford to. There hAs to be another way. There hAs to be a lot around here (any block now) where it's not $15-$30 to park. I'm not a millionaire like the CEO of the tech company where i work. I'm just a regular guy. And there's got to be some regular parking around here.
I found myself back near our co-location again. There's another parking lot over here. There's no sign though, so maybe... I park and enter my "lot number" into the machine... And it's calculating... And... "$10". -I'll pay that! I'll pay $10! That's double what i usually pay and I'll have to skip lunch today, but I'll pay that.
During the long (lonnng) walk from 101 I'm calculating how much money i lost driving around downtown instead of clocking into ADI. I'm still "ahead" 'cause i went $10 instead of $20/$25, but it hAs cost me some lunch money. Great.
P.S. i know what you're thinking. "Why doesn't he just have monthly parking someplace?" Well, do the math. i work at my day job only four days a week and one of those days is a Sunday (free parking downtown). i need to pay only about twelve times in a workmonth. It'd be a waste to spend $85 for a spot that I'm only going to need for $60-worth of time. $25 x 12 months = $300/year. It's not worth it. (Except today of course.)