Friday the 13th Mayhem

My parking ordeal last night before dinner was as follows: I drove around Yaletown, trying to find a street parking spot. I hate street parking so I found the easyPay lot that I usually park in when I go to Yaletown. I find a parking spoton the upper level and go to the machine to pay. It eats my card. A guy comes up from the lower level and says, "Is this machine working? The one downstairs isn't." I tell him it's eaten my card. I phone easyPay and they say they'll send someone down to help me. As I'm waiting (not very long) the machine spits out my card. The same guy comes up from the lower level again, this time with his friends, and says, "The security guard said he'll phone someone. I don't think you have to pay anything." This concerns me so I phone the "pay by phone" number. I don't bother putting a sign on my car that says, "Machine out of order". As I walk to the restaurant, already flustered because I was late and just coming from work, I get on the phone with the pay by phone people. She takes all of my information down and then says, "Oh, there's a problem with registering your credit card. I'll escalate this problem to my manager and we'll call you back." I ask her, "How am I going to pay for my parking in the meantime?" She says, "Sorry, ma'am, but that's not our responsibility." I say to her, "Well, that doesn't help me. Cancel my registration. I don't want to use your service." By this time, I've walked the block and a half to the restaurant. I wasn't about to trek back just to put the note on my car. I decide to chance it. Little did I know a ticket would be the least of my problems. Did I mention I parked in the spots for Mini Yaletown?

As I walked back to my car with Michelle, Carl and Daphne, I joked that I hoped my car was still in the lot. We parted ways at the driveway to the lot and they walked onto their car. I get to the gate - it was down. The garage closed at 10PM. I couldn't see the little blue Civic from where I was. Instead of wondering what to do, I ran after Michelle, Carl and Daphne, who luckily were still waiting at the lights to cross. They were kind enough to drive my poor, stupid, brainless self home. Thank you again, guys!

At 6AM, my dad and I trekked out to Yaletown to retrieve my car. I phoned easyPay first and said, "My car was locked in your Yaletown location last night. Would they have towed it?" She said it would still be there. I figured I'd have a parking ticket on it but I'd happily pay that than the towing fee. Anyway, short story long, there was no parking ticket on it, it was still in the lot, no one broke into it and now it's home with me again. Oh, what a night!