Parking spots

I was half listening to Pat and JT this morning on the radio while I was getting breakfast for Alyssa and I. Granted, I was in and out of the room a lot, so I didn't follow the conversation as closely as I wanted to, but they were talking about how Westroads has designated parking spots for expectant mothers, new mothers, and senior citizens as well as the normal handicapped spaces. The big debate was that another guy on the show, Tommy, has no problem parking in the mother/senior citizen spots if no other spots close enough are available. Now, he's around 30, an athlete, etc, so there's really no reason that he couldn't walk a little farther just because he couldn't get a space close to the door. He actually said something about driving around for 15 minutes looking for a space close and that he wouldn't park in the first spot that he saw because it was usually too far from the door. I wanted to call in so badly and tell him what a jerk I thought he was, but he was being so "prickish" and stubborn and I didn't have a solid argument, so I was feeling kind of defensive and felt like I would just get more upset if I got through and got to speak my piece and then had that jerk just poo all over it. One mother called in and was talking about how when she was expecting she couldn't walk for more than 10 minutes without sitting down and crying because she was in so much pain and she thought that it was awful that Tommy would take parking spots away from people like her that could use them. She said something about the exercise wouldn't hurt him. He agreed that he needed the exercise, but came back with "pregnant women need to exercise, too". I found myself hoping that someday he gets married and his wife has a difficult pregnancy and needs the closer parking spots, but some young guy who's too darn lazy to walk a little farther takes the spot. But then I would never really wish a difficult pregnancy on someone. I can't believe that someone would be that stinking lazy and inconsiderate. That he thinks him parking close is more important than the senior citizen who has to struggle to get out of their house, but needs groceries. Or the 9 month pregnant woman who has to go out to get diapers for her other children. The whole thing makes me feel sick to my stomach.

My experience with this . . . I was about 8 months pregnant with Alyssa and going to Hy-Vee. I drove past the "expectant mother" parking spot, but someone had just pulled in, so I parked about 2 cars away. Not a big deal. As I'm walking by the "expectant mother" steps out. She's about 16, wearing a skirt that barely covers her ass and a crop top that showed off her very non pregnant stomach. She looked really embarrassed when she saw me waddle past her. Now, I know some people have difficult pregnancies from the start and need the closer spaces because they aren't supposed to be on their feet that much and I know that sometimes they get a lot of flack because people can't tell that that is their situation just by looking at them, but I have a feeling that my situation was just a teenage girl that wanted the close spot. The thing that really got me was that I parked TWO SPOTS AWAY from her. Could she really not walk the extra 15 feet?!

Yesterday I took Alyssa to Target and was getting to pull into a spot. A woman was in the next aisle over and pulled through the spot on her side to pull into the spot that I was going to take. (Because it was closer to the door) I thought maybe when she saw me she would back up and take the space behind, but she made eye contact and gave me a "sorry, I was here first" kind of shrug. So, I went over and pulled in behind her. I though about smashing into her little tin can car with my big mommy mobile, but didn't. I hope she saw me struggle to get Alyssa, a blanket, the diaper bag, and my purse out of the car and felt bad for being such a witch.

Grrrr to all the stupid, lazy people who waste so much of their life looking for the closest parking spot possible.