Four days ago I drove home from the grocery store. It was torrential rain. A bad gloomy morning all around.<\/p>\n
I live on a street (not for long!) where a huge group of Harley Davidson dudes reside, so my dead-end street is always populated with parked motorcycles that can make the rest of us have a difficult time. I’m a good parallel parker, anyway – I rarely have to pull out for a second try – but the Harleys scare the shit out of me, I won’t lie. They are gleaming awesome machines, obviously precious and beloved, and … well. There have been times when I have driven a block away so that I don’t have to deal with parking amongst those motorcycles. Easier to just walk the block to my house.<\/p>\n
The rain was letting up a bit as I pulled onto my street. It was only 11 in the morning and I already wondered how the hell I was going to get through the whole day. I was so tired, so sad.<\/p>\n
My street was sprinkled with gleaming Harleys. There were places in between them, but that would require me parallel parking between two of them, something I have successfully avoided the entire time I have lived here.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I live on a dead-end street – and two of the Harley owners were out in their front yard as I pulled up. They were putting some furniture out on the sidewalk so they sort of stopped, glanced at me, waiting to see what I would do. Worst possible scenario. To have the owners of said gleaming motorcycles WATCH as I park between them.<\/p>\n
But I had had it. I had had it with all of life at that moment. I am no longer going to get out of the goddamn way of other people. No more. I am going to take MY space and I am sick of being a good fucking sport about getting out of the way. No. No more.<\/p>\n
The dudes were watching. I had on sunglasses.<\/p>\n
I pulled up beside one of the Harleys. I grit my teeth, and – in one smooth motion – backed in between the two bikes, perfectly positioning myself, not scraping anything, not hitting the curb – with inches to spare between the two bikes. I am telling you, that parking job was a thing of beauty and a joy forever.<\/p>\n
And it might have stopped there. I would have had a grim proud moment to myself, all alone, but it would have had a “fuck you” feeling to it, as in: “Fuck you, Harley dudes, I am sick of having to navigate around your bikes, and I just beat the system, so SCREW YOU.” There is, of course, a certain amount of joy in “winning” – and I would have felt triumphant regardless – because that was a tough parking job, not to mention being eyeballed by two scary-looking bald dudes right across the street.<\/p>\n
So it might have stopped there. But as I took the key out of the ignition, grabbed my iPod, whatever, I became aware of a dim sound. My windows were rolled up, due to the rain, so I wasn’t immediately conscious of it – and certainly not aware that it was for me. It finally caught my attention – was it cheering? Clapping? I looked up and the two Harley dudes were clapping, and giving me a thumbs up sign.<\/p>\n
When I got out of the car, one of the dudes called across the street to me, “That is, hands down, the best parallel parking job I’ve ever seen!”<\/p>\n
Other dude was clapping and laughing out loud. “You looked so PISSED OFF and then – zip zip zip – you just backed the fuck into that spot – it was so awesome!”<\/p>\n
What was really cool about this interaction was that they had sensed where I was at – emotionally – and that I refused to be pushed off of my own street. I might have become a creature of snickering fun to them if I had had to laboriously parallel park, pulling out, trying again, going at it a different angle – but the fact that I got it right in one try, with almost one gentle swoop of the wheel, made them love me to death. Love me so much that they clapped and cheered.<\/p>\n
Didn’t make the day shorter or better, but it is another moment for the stockpile.<\/p>\n
It put a glow through my heart, and made me laugh. I walked into my house, pretending to bow at them as I opened my door, and I still heard them laughing about me as I walked inside, laughing about my angry grim face and how I would not be deterred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four days ago I drove home from the grocery store. It was torrential rain. A bad gloomy morning all around. I live on a street (not for long!) where a huge group of Harley Davidson dudes reside, so my dead-end … Continue reading