Fear of parking

I wonder how many opportunities I've missed in my life due to my irrational fear of parking.  I know it's kind of crazy, but parking the car paralyzes me.  I almost didn't take advantage of a free ticket to an awesome performance of Kinky Boots at our downtown theater because...where would I park!?!??!?  Seriously, this is a problem.  Art festival?  Where will I park?  Visit St. Augustine (a beautiful, historic town nearby)?  No parking!  Drive into the city?!  I don't think so.  

 My parents are both long gone, but I think I can trace some of this fear to the way I was raised.  My mother had her OB/GYN practice in our home and we lived on a four lane highway.  Problematic.  We had a small pseudo parking lot on the side of our house, but it wasn't large enough to accommodate my mom's patients and our family cars.  Every time mom had office hours, we had to move our cars to another neighborhood and walk home.  Not a huge deal, really, until one morning I walked to my car and noticed it was much roomier inside.  It took me a minute to realize that someone had stolen the bucket seats.  Hmmmm.  Difficult to drive without the seats.  I got a milk crate from somewhere and drove slowly home.  It took a while to replace those seats.  Apparently they were quite the hot commodity back then. 

 I will never forget the day I realized that this fear probably was instilled in me by my mother.  I'm sure she didn't intend it, but, you know, mothers...Anyway, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.  I had a BA in English Literature and was having trouble finding jobs other than secretarial.  This was back in the day when we still fetched coffee for the boss; he called me his "girl" and I called him "Mister Whatever."  Not for me.  We lived in a Philadelphia suburb and Drexel University had an outstanding Masters program in Information Studies.  I called my mom to discuss my plans to go back to school for the degree that would enable a career as a librarian.  She cried out in a near panic, "But, where will you park?!?"  I thought, well, that settles that:  no advanced degree for me. Then, it occurred to me that I was making a very serious life decision based on my ability to park the car.  Scary. 

 I did go to Drexel and I found a way to deal with the car parking problem.  This was a huge victory for me.  Still, this irrational parking fear haunts me.  Just as I did after I hung up with my mother, I have to really force myself to think rationally about what I might be missing.

 Life is short.  Find a way to park the freaking car!!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blonde and Skinny and Fake

I admit that I spend more time than I should thinking about how I look.  I don't know about you, but I was indoctrinated at a very early age.  Like many newborns, I had blonde hair at birth.  That blonde hair usually doesn't last.  It didn't last on me.  I don't know exactly when it happened, but I remember that my mother poured peroxide over my hair when it started getting dark.  Now, my mother was an educated woman; she received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois in 1943.  But, even an educated woman apparently wanted her first child to remain a blonde.  For years, she went to the drug store to get some Miss Clairol Blonde formula with which to keep me bright and beautiful (in her eyes, anyway).  I don't know how she found the time, but it must have been quite the priority for her.  This was a woman with a medical practice in our home who was very often called away to deliver babies.  Looking back, I am ...
Read more

A Raccoon Pooped in My Birdseed

We have a covered patio at the back of our house.  It's great for morning coffee, afternoon wine, bird-watching, and just enjoying the peace and quiet.  Our patio has some plants, a small table and chairs, and a supply of birdseed in a large covered plastic container.  The patio is adjacent to our bedroom.    I'm normally a pretty heavy sleeper, but one night I was awakened by a noise outside our bedroom window.  It was coming from the patio.  Of course, I woke up my husband, "Bill, there's SOMETHING OUT THERE!!!"  I ran to the kitchen to turn on the patio light.  By the time I got the light on, the raccoon was retreating.  He/she/it got away quickly.  When we checked the patio the next day, there was no sign of damage.  No problem. The next night, I heard it again; same deal, raccoon got scared and scurried into the night.  The following morning, I saw the damage.  The raccoon had gotten the lid off the birdseed....
Read more

Body image

When I was young, less than 15 years old young, I had a monster metabolism.  I could eat like mad and never gain any weight.  At one point my mother considered having me tested to see if I was harboring a tape worm.  It was that crazy.  One day, everything changed and I started packing on the pounds with no effort at all.  These new pounds were particularly attracted to my thighs, a trend that has continued. Even when I was a tiny, skinny little thing, I was always worried about how I looked.  When all the other girls started growing in all the appropriate places, I remained horrifyingly flat chested. At that age when I thought everyone was checking me daily to see if I had sprouted the necessary equipment, every day was another disappointment.  Adolescence; has anyone lived through it unscathed?  What was wrong with me and my stupid body? I survived the savagery of adolescence, but I never lost the feeling that the world would be a ...
Read more