My car got towed last night.

Ok, lets back up and encompass the whole story. Yesterday was the official last day in the old crappy apartment, everything was vacuumed, packed, moved, and keys were dropped off at the rental office. peachy. Actually it was rather exciting, I never have to be in that place again! YAY!

anyway, after finishing that up, I had a movie date with my mom and my cousin to see Julie & Julia, and yes, it is an awesome movie! See it!

After the movie I made the very sleepy trek back to the new apartment, parked at the first spot I saw and made my way to the 6th floor to collapse into bed.

This morning I went down to where I had left my car and it was gone. As were the cars that had been surrounding it. Apparently in my sleepy state I failed to notice the giant NO PARKING FIRE LANE signs, and just parked between the other two cars that were there. All 3 of us got towed.

So I talked to the guy at the front desk, he told me that, yes indeed I had been towed (and now I need a helpful comment!) and that I could pick it up at the impound lot and it would cost $100. suck.

However. Since moving and starting the new job, I have been threatening myself that I MUST start taking the bus to work. It costs $6 a day to park in the lot under my office and it costs $2.50 round trip to take the bus. Thats a worthwhile savings, wouldn't ya say?

My hesitation springs from the fact that (and here I will open myself to much ridicule), I have never taken the bus in my life. Oh sure, I took the school bus for 2 years in high school. And I've taken my fair share of airport shuttle buses, but never have I taken a public commuter bus. Ever.

And so my image of buses and people who ride them is taken solely from television and movies, where if they include a bus scene, its usually because there is a crazy person wearing a tin-foil hat and talking to himself. This I did not want to encounter. Really did not want to encounter.

But, with the towing, my hand was pretty much forced. And my lovely roommate (a veteran busser) offered to walk with me to the stop (down the block from our building) and make sure I got on the right bus and was pointed in the right direction.

I even managed to pull the thingy at the right time and get off across the street from my office, and I ended up being only 10 minutes late! despite the having to talk to the front desk guy at the apartment and figuring out the bus online and walking to the bus stop and freaking out that I would be accosted by a crazy person.

And in truth, there was a crazy-type person, who talked to himself the whole time. At first I thought he just had a speech impediment and a blue-tooth, but close examination of his head revealed no blue-tooth. But probably aliens. Anyway, I pretty much ignored him, except when he pointed out that I had dropped my cell phone (those aliens are perceptive). I thanked him, and even remembered to be polite and thank the bus driver.

All in all, I'm kind of OK. Yeah picking up my car is gonna suck (again, my only image of impound lots is taken from tv and movies, especially the scene in "In her Shoes" where Cameron Diaz is almost raped at an impound lot. Yikes!), but my dad will be with me and it will be daylight, and my dad is a pretty scary to people who dont know him, so the chances of me being raped are close to none (knock wood).

Anyway, thats been my morning. And honestly, I'm not that freaked anymore. I'm a little proud of myself for being so grown up about it (except for needing my daddy to protect me at the impound lot.... and needing my roommate to walk me to the bus stop...OK maybe not so grown-up after all...) and I really feel like everything will be OK, I will take the bus to work on Tuesday, and survive, and life will be hunky dorey. I hope.