Adventures in Parking

Parking lots... they look so organized, all those straight lines and numbered rows. But, beware! Just when you think you have them figured out, they make a flaming, and very public, idiot of you.

My public humiliation was on Thursday. I had taken Matthew to the doctor for an ear infection (um, actually, he already had an ear infection but you get my meaning) and we stopped at KMart aftewards for his prescription. My little troop was amazingly well behaved! We reached the pharmacy only to find it closed for lunch!! Pharmacists can't eat between customers?? We trooped back out to the parking lot and headed for our blue van. The boys circled to the passenger side and proceeded to yank repeatedly on the locked door. I tried to find the keys while juggling a sleepy baby. I found them. I pushed the handy button on my handy remote. Nothing. I pushed it again. Nothing. I tried the door handle... still locked. The boys were pulling on the door on the other side. I was beginning to panic... not real panic, just a bit of alarm at the thought of not using my handy remote. Could I actually put a key in a lock?? I hadn't done it in so long. I glanced up and saw it.... a van identical to the one we were surrounding. It was in the next aisle. Uh-oh!! We trooped over to that other van, laughing all the way. I looked around. KMart's parking lot was very quiet. I didn't think we'd been seen. But as I strapped Matthew in the driver's side, I looked across through the open passenger side door. There was a woman sitting in her van a couple spaces over laughing hysterically. She rolled down her window to make sure I knew she was laughing at us. As it turns out, she'd made a similar mistake but actually got inside someone else's car before she realized what a dufus she was!! I guess I can be thankful that other van owner locked her doors! LOL


Jeff was quite impressed with my parking lot foible, but he decided to trump me today by screwing up in the rain!!! We were checking out at WalMart. The cashier was so-o-o-o incredibly s-l-o-w that Jeff decided to take the boys and groceries on out to the van. We were somewhere near the middle of the ten million cash register lanes (although only two of them were actually open) and Jeff headed out the non-grocery side of the store. We had made a point to park on the grocery side since we were mostly getting groceries. I didn't notice in time to remind him so he took a cart overflowing with groceries, three boys walking, and one very heavy baby out the wrong side of the store... into the rain. But the truly amazing part of this story is that he didn't realize he was on the wrong side of the store and therefore on the wrong side of the parking lot.

Now, I was still in the store so I can't tell you exactly what happened but reports say that it was raining. Jeff was carrying the baby. Adam was pushing the heavy, and not very well aligned, grocery cart between parked cars. Evan was whining (no one actually said this but I think it's a pretty good guess). Ryan was running ahead, scouting for the van. I'm not sure how long they hunted in the rain or how many people laughed at them. I know I was pleading with the cashier to just kill me b/c she was so incredibly s-l-o-w so they must have been wandering for some time. By the time I got out there, and I went out the correct side of the store, Jeff had just gotten the doors unlocked and everyone, and everything, was dripping wet. I'm just glad it was him this time. My shoes weren't waterproof.