parking

The Parking Ramp Hater
black and white indoor parking garage scene
Photo by Haberdoedas Photography on Pexels.com

I was going to meet a friend in the parking ramp. She was giving me a ride to a Friday night event. She was late. I was standing inside by the elevators and I watched a guy drive by in a white van and park in a space that was not a parking space. It was just off to the side by some pillars. People have parked there before and blocked my space and I had trouble getting my car out or could not get it out. He got out of his car and walked towards the elevators. When he tried the door, he found it locked but he had a fob and was able to gain entry. 

When he came in I said, “Just so you know, that is not a parking space. It could block my way.”

He seemed confused and said it was guest parking. 

“No, it is not a space. If you have guest parking, you should have a space number to park in. All the spaces have numbers.”

He fumbled around and then called somebody on his phone and that person was clueless as well. Then he went back outside. When he came back in he said,

“I’m not blocking anybody. I’m not blocking you. You are just a complainer. You just love to complain. I bet all you do is complain. You f**king b**ch. What a f**king b**ch. Complain complain. B**ch You f**king b**ch”

At first I tried to explain to him what I was talking about but he was having none of it.

“F**king b**ch you are a f**king b**ch all you do is complain, complain”

“Yep, I just complain. Complain.”

Then he really started to get riled up. He was carrying a very old mangey tiny dog that looked like it was on its last legs. This big guy with a big mouth and a tiny sad dog. I refrained from commenting on that. Thought better of it.

He got right up in my face, “f**king b**ch, you are a f**king b**ch, what a f**king b**ch” and on and on. 

I finally looked him right in the eyes and said, “Are you going to hit me?”

I thought he was going to hit me, he was so riled up. Practically foaming at the mouth.

There was a split second flicker in his eyes, an almost undiscernible pause. He stepped back.

“I’m not going to hit you. You stupid f**king b**ch. What a stupid f**king b**ch.”

“Yeah, and you are nasty”

“I’m nasty? You are a nasty f**king b**ch. What a f**king stupid b**ch …” this went on for a while longer and I just looked away and ignored him without making further contact of any kind.

Eventually he went back outside and called his friend on his phone and I could hear him telling the person what a f**king b**ch I was.

I gave up on meeting my friend and went back to my apartment. I was shaken. I just wanted to get someplace safe. Away from the crazies.

I thought maybe I should have tried to film him or take his picture or take a picture of his van. But after seeing how the ICE agents react to that behavior it was probably not a good idea. Who knows how he would have reacted to that. 

An hour a later a friend checked and his van was gone. After all of that, he moved his van.

It was strange that he didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. I thought he would just get on the elevator and go see his friend. But he didn’t. He just stayed in the parking ramp. Why? What was he really doing? 

I’ve come across some crazies in my time. I go into survival mode. I try to calm them down. But the vitriol hate this guy was spewing was something new to me. He was truly a hater.

Over a parking space?

Some Moving Challenges

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I moved to Minnesota last week. I was living in a hotel until my stuff arrived and two days ago I moved into my new apartment. It is both exciting and challenging. I spend my time wondering where things are and deciding where to put things. I open a box and usually I get distracted thinking about what is in the box and what I should do with it. So then I go and do something else in preparation for organizing what was in the box and then I forget about that box and move things around in closets or open a different box. There are no shortage of boxes. Then for a fleeting moment I think about the holidays and wonder if I should send out Christmas cards. That idea is quickly discarded in favor of New Year’s cards. Problem solved.

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I got the trees up!

 

Soon after arriving I went to Ikea to buy a desk. I had been to Ikea many times in Virginia and so quickly became oriented to my surroundings. On exiting I confidently marched all my stuff to the elevators on the left of the cashiers. There were no elevators. There was an exit to a parking lot. My brother asked me if I had parked on the upper level. Of course I had not so he steered me in another direction to find the elevators. My car was nowhere to be found. It just wasn’t there. As was wandering around looking for my car looked through a glass door to another parking lot on the other side of the building. It was an ‘aha’ moment. My car was over there.

The next day I went to Target and also could not find my car. When I went in I took special notice as to where I parked so I would be sure to find my car. But it was not there. I wheeled my shopping cart up and down several aisles but it just wasn’t there. Then I looked at the building. There were two exits. I must have come out a different exit. When I oriented myself to the other exit, I quickly found my car. It was disorienting to have this happen not only once, but twice.

When I moved to the US from overseas everything was disorienting and unfamiliar. I was not used to shopping at large stores like Target or even large supermarkets. I would find myself overwhelmed with the amount of choices and at times I would shut down in the middle of a store and have to leave. This was different. These stores were familiar in a different place so I had a false sense of confidence about them. This made it even stranger because now the familiar became unfamiliar.

Note to self, check how many exits the building has when parking the car.