Parking

I caved. I bought a parking pass today for the University. After years of circling the campus 50 times before finally seeing a car about to pull out of their curb side spot, only to be beat out by some other desperate student, I decided it was time.

I'm tired of having to park on the street and then lugging all my books and paraphanalia across the busy lanes, over the campus grasses and onto the sidewalks and then realizing I still have to walk to the farthest end of campus to the building that houses my first class of the day.

Most times I just told myself to be grateful for the exercise and that the back pain was nothing a good heating pad couldn't cure later on. But then November would come and I'd be painfully reminded that I didn't live in Florida. It actually snows here. Sometimes, a lot!

Last year was the last straw. I'm tired of climbing through snow banks to get to the sidewalks which were never salted, much less clear by 7 am. I'm tired of slipping and falling, scattering my books in the snow drifts. I'm tired of sitting through classes with wet pants, wet socks and freezing cold everything.

So I did it. I forked out the money for the lowest ranking parking pass the campus had to offer. I won't be getting A list parking, but I will be guaranteed a shorter walking distance to class and a frequently patrolled parking lot to leave my beloved car in all day.

That is....if I make it to campus by 6:30 am and beat all the other 1200 students that also bought parking passes.