I got to work, happily, at 10:25. 5 minutes to find a parking space and walk in. The only problem in a town like Laguna Beach is that every inch seems to be taken by a house or some beach bungalow. The high school didn't have room to build a parking lot, so the neighborhoods around the school are completely lined with cars and I began searching for an opening. I circled the school twice and called Mishelle to let her know I would be in in a few minutes (everyone understands parking trouble at this school). As I rounded the school for a third time and almost resigned to parking downtown (1 mile away) I saw a spot on the school side of the street right in front of the baseball diamond and the running track. There was a large opening between a convertible Mustang and an old Chevrolet Impala. I looked at the curb, looked at my watch (noting that I was now 12 minutes late) and squeezed right in. Perfect parking job with plenty of space in front of, and behind my car. As I was about to turn off my engine and pull up my emergency break (since my car was angled downhill from the hood side) my foot slipped, my car stalled, and it rolled FAST towards the car that was once 2 ft. in front of me and was now about 2 inches from my bumper!
I slammed my foot on the break and held it there, afraid to move. If I put my car into reverse then the split second that it rolled forward would have done damage to the Impala. I panicked and called every male that I know. None of them answered after several tries. I started to cry. I was stressed, unable to contact anyone, and 5 minutes into the predicament my knee, which I think I sprained this weekend, began to shake and I had to hold it on the break while it throbbed.
I was sitting in my car crying and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that a heavy old man was walking out of his house across the street toward me. I rolled down my window and he shook his head as if to shame me and said, "Do you realize you are right up against the bumper of the car in front of you?"
"Yes, sir. I'm trying to call for some assistance, but I'm not sure what to do." Voice dripping with tears from pain and panic.
"Well, I'm certainly not going to help you, you better hope that you can pump in a lot of gas and get out of there." He shook his head at me again and laughed in a mocking tone.
"I'm afraid it will roll forward."
"It better not!" Then he walked back to his side of the street to watch.
I felt shamed and began to cry all the harder, then tried calling my mom. She answered! For 10 minutes she and I talked about the possibilities of what I could do. The entire time he was watching and I was crying and we couldn't think of anything and my leg was shaking so badly I thought it was going to give out.It was now 20 minutes from the onset of the incident and I had no idea what to do. I saw a campus security guard walk up and ask me for my ID and information because they had gotten a call about my misconduct and I was getting in trouble. He had called the school to get me in trouble when I was obviously in the predicament! At the same time they arrived he came out of his house, shook his head at me, reached into his pocket, pulled out the keys to his Impala and pulled it forward about 5 inches even thought there was an entire car length of space in front of him! It had been his car all along and for 20 minutes I had bawled and strained my knee while he watched unconcerned.
As he got out of his car I said,
"Thank you sir, I'm sorry that you had to move your car."
"If you don't know how to drive your car, then you don't have any business driving Lady!" He shook his head and I squirmed out of the tiny parking spot and drove down town where I could safely park in a level parking space 1 mile away.
I arrived at work huffing, sweating, splotchy faced, pink-eyed, 40 minutes late.
The moral of the story is that I will never ever parallel park on a slope. And I hope that whatever made the old man so mean will be rectified soon. I can't imagine what a hard heart he must have!
Here is a picture that was taken while they filmed Laguna Beach to show you how bad the parking is!
