Come back!!

Tuesday was such a good day.

I was wearing new clothes I had just bought during my weekend shopping spree, the weather was sunny and gorgeous, and I was just overall in a good mood.

Yesterday, I woke up and I could tell right away it wasn't good. My convertible apartment faces east, so I can tell immediately what kind of a day it is. Yesterday wasn't a nice day. It was gray and gloomy and foggy. Even though I've lived here for nearly three years, the Colorado girl in me still doesn't quite grasp the weather here. In Colorado, it can be gloomy and warm. Here, it's only warm if it's nice and sunny. And even sunny doesn't necessarily mean warm. Foolishly optimistic, I dressed a bit warmer, but wore flip-flops to school. Bad idea, I realized when I reached my parking garage and felt the breeze on my feet. But, no big deal -- I have parking right behind the law school so it's only a short walk from my car to the building.

So I pull my car into the law school parking lot. It's mid-afternoon so it's pretty full, which means a longer walk to the building -- but still not bad. After circling for a few minutes, though, the sickening realization dawns on me: there are no spots left. This is unprecedented, and legally impossible. The culprit was obvious to me: someone had parked in my spot!

I don't have an actual assigned spot, of course, but I have a guaranteed spot in that the parking office doesn't (or at least, it isn't supposed to) give out more permits than there are spaces. I have a permit (one I had to wait two years to have the privilege of paying for, since only 3Ls are eligible for the coveted close-up spots), so theoretically I have a spot somewhere in the lot. But not today. Fuming, I raced out of the parking lot to search for street parking. I found some that was fortunately not too far away, but I was taken aback at having had to search for it. I stormed into the law school and shared the news with the first person unlucky enough to be in my path: JCA. "When did you get here?" I demanded. She was confused -- whether it was because of my attitude or the irrelevance of my question, who knows. "Um, I just had lunch with a friend," she said. "When did you get back?" She shrugged, "I dunno. Not long ago." "Did you find parking?" The friend had driven, so JCA hadn't had to deal with the insult and inconvenience of a pilfered space. "I just got here," I growled, "and there were no parking spots! I had to park across the street!" Moved by my plight, she compassionately offered me a ride to my car after class.

My complaining drew a crowd of friendly and likely frightened individuals, whom I quizzed for the number of the parking office. One of them smartly suggested I call the switchboard. Oh, duh. When I got through to the parking office I explained to them what had happened. The woman on the line promised to alert the parking ticket-givers of the situation. Ha! Much as I hate parking tickets on principle, my frozen toes cried out for retribution. And thus, I likely spread my unhappiness. Selfish, perhaps, but the bad weather had put me in a foul mood, particularly following as it did such blissfully perfect weather of a mere 24 hours earlier.

Today was not much better, though it was at least sunny. I checked weather.com's forecast for the next ten days. Alas, Chicago cannot expect to break 60 for over a week. Sigh... I miss miniskirt weather. Hurry up, summer!