My bad

Nobody is great at everything.

I'll admit here and now that I can be a bad car-parker. I drive a Honda Odyssey. Sometimes, especially when I'm turning into a space making a right turn, I don't get square in the middle of my space. It can be hard in smaller parking lots, or if there are big cars next to me. On occasion I will back out and try to realign myself to get in better. It depends on how much space is between the car next to me, or if my tires are on or over the line.

Today I pulled into a space in the parking structure at the San Marcos Community Center. It was Jean-Marc's "Move and Groove" class that he missed last week because he was sick and I was going to a funeral.  He had been cooped up for 2 days in the house and really needed to get out and have fun. He's been sick with this nasty flu for a week and is just getting over it. We were ready to have some fun, and Miss Amy had an Easter egg hunt planned.

Anyway, I'll admit that it wasn't my best parking job. I didn't realize it until after I had gotten Jean-Marc out of the car and we were walking away. My tires were on the line on the right side.  But then again, so were the tires of the car next to me, which more than made up for the extra space I was taking up. We both did a bad job of parking. I decided it was too much to get the 2 year old BACK in the car, to re-park when the other car was also over the line on the other side. Besides, they had several feet of space between our cars to get in.  So we went on our way.

I came back out about an hour later to have a note on my windshield:


" Hard to get into my car when you park like this. Think about being more curteous. (Their misspelling) Having cancer has made you rude!" 

How do you like that!?

(By the way, they know about the cancer because I have a pink ribbon "survivor" magnet on the back of the van.)

I was pretty shocked, since it didn't seem that bad, especially since they had also done a lousy job parking. I'll admit it wasn't my shining moment, but did it merit such a nastygram? At least they didn't say that I deserved to have had cancer, or that they hoped it comes back because I parked lamely.

One reason this annoyed me is that I always like to have the last word. It's another one of my faults, I suppose. With them leaving a note and then disappearing, I wasn't given the opportunity to respond. I've been pondering various possible responses I could have had if given the chance in the hours since:

• Actually, I've been parking like this for a long time, so I guess I've been rude for awhile!
• Or something inspired by my late Grandpa Graham:  "Get your own da** parking garage!"
• I've had cancer...what's YOUR excuse?
• I'm glad you got that off your chest. Do you feel better?
• Jesus loves you.  How can I pray for you?

Regardless of the note, I do want to better myself in all ways, including parking. I just don't want that anonymous person to get the satisfaction of thinking that it was their nasty note that did it. May our paths never cross again!