Parking Tickets and the CTA
Added: September 26th, 2006 (tagged with: chicago, cta)
Ahh... Where to begin... I live on the 5th floor of an apartment building and I like taking the stairs over the elevator to get some exercise every day. This morning, on my way out, I notice the door knob to the staircase laying in the hallway. The door opens into the staircase, so no stairs for me on the way up today. Stephanie has a used car that she is going to use for work once a week. When we bought the car about two weeks ago, we parked it on Belmont, the only place within half a mile of our apartment that we could find parking. Just so happens, that Stephanie and I missed this sign that says "No Parking During Rush Hour." So, a week later, there are four tickets on the car costing $50 each. Steph goes online and pays the first parking ticket, because it is already due and we don't have time to look for the No Parking sign and contest the tickets. Yesterday, Steph drives by the location we parked at and finds the sign, so we have to pay the tickets. The City of Chicago has a web site to pay tickets online, Steph tries to pay the second ticket, and gets a message saying for security reasons, the credit card cannot be used to pay the second ticket. So, I try my card, and it works. Okay, no problem, I can pay the tickets for her. I take the remaining two tickets to work with me this morning. Good old City of Chicago web site, denied my attempt to pay the tickets. So, I call Steph to see if her card will work this time, no such luck. Stephanie is working tonight so, I have to go to 2550 West Addison to pay the tickets in person. I look up how to get to the building on the CTA web site: I need to take Purple to Brown to Addison and a bus from there to "Addison and West of Campbell (Maplewood)" - so Maplewood, right? Turns out, no, after Campbell there is no Maplewood stop, so I get off at the next stop anyway because Campbell is in the 2400 block. I walk back to Campbell passed a mini-mall and an EMPTY construction lot. Luckily, I walk back and see the place in the mini-mall. Half-hour in line, pay the tickets, out by 6:04 p.m. Plenty of time to get back home to watch House M.D. at 7. Or so I thought. I'm waiting for a bus in front of Lane Tech High School... don't see one until 6:35, AND IT'S FULL. Cubs game tonight. Two Wrigley Field express buses and two normal Addison buses later and I'm still waiting for a bus that can fit another person in it. I get finally get back to the Wellington Brown Line stop at 7:01 and back to the apartment at 7:15. 7:15! I watch House, at fifteen minutes in the patient has probably almost died once or twice. Argh! Oh, well.
Kitten, I think what I'm saying, is that sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?
-- Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters II
