Life By Lindsey Rae

Ok, so awhile back I wrote about how I got a parking ticket for parking in front of my house after 1:00 am. My ticket is due by May 1st and I haven't paid yet. I have been waiting until the last minute, because of course, I don't think it's very cool to have to pay a ticket for parking in front of your house.
However, the last few days I was thinking about possibly going to court and seeing if I could get it taken away and maybe just get them to give me a warning instead. But, I don't know that I really have a good argument, other than this is an unfinished street, has houses still under construction and there is really nobody driving down it in the middle of the night. So, me leaving my car on the street an extra hour isn't hurting anything.
But, the city law is no cars on the street between 1-5:00 am. So, then, does any of that matter? Maybe not.
I just called to find out about going to court and they said that if I'm "found guilty" (doesn't that just sound so severe for a parking ticket?) which may likely be the case, I will have to pay an extra $13.75 in court fees. So that will be on top of the $20, making it a total of $33.75 for the stupid parking ticket. If they let it go, it will be nothing, but I don't know if it is worth the risk. Any opinions?

I think I forgot to mention that last week I got a ticket for parking in front of my driveway. Yes, this is a true story.

The city of Mt. Juliet has a law that you can't park on the street between 1:00 and 5:00 AM. We usually keep all our vehicles in the driveway, but I happened to move my car out this day because I was trying to be thoughtful and helpful and do something nice as Jerrod was going to mow the lawn (for the first time) and I was trying to make sure he had enough room to get the lawnmower out of the garage.

Around 2:00 in the morning I realized that my car was still parked in front of the driveway and not IN the driveway and so I ran out there to move it and sure enough, I already had received a parking ticket, courtesy of the Mt. Juliet police. I can't believe they don't have any bigger crime to find than me on my quiet street (which is partially still under construction), and give me a ticket only an hour after the no parking time. It's a $20 ticket! For parking in front of my own driveway! (Actually, with the right 2 wheels pretty much in the driveway anyway). Not nice at all!

Today I gave up my Jetta for a new car.
It is a '97 was at almost 100,000 miles and Jerrod doesn't like to keep cars after they get that many miles on them, so it was time to get something new. It was a good little car for me and I knew I would be sad to get rid of my car, because I liked it. But, at the same time, I think it was better that we got something else before it got over the 100,000 mark, because it is easier to sell/trade it while it is under and before it has any problems.
I think the reason I felt so attached to that car was because Jerrod bought it for me when we were first dating. We had known each other just about a month or two and I had been in an accident and totaled the car I was driving. I was a poor student who had to travel a two hours to school and back home everyday and was in desperate need of something drive. Jerrod found this car and bought it for me to "use" but, had basically handed it over to me as the sole driver. It saved me at the time and it was pretty amazing that he had been willing to do that for me. (That could have been a bad situation if our relationship had not worked out!) But, he must have liked me or something, because he was sure helped me out a lot.
Anyway, so, I always really appreciated having the Jetta because of that especially. But, as much as I love my Jetta, today we traded it in on a new car. I got a Mazda3, which I quite like. I really love the body style of this car.
Of all the ones I looked at, I think it's one of my favorite, (except for maybe Jerrod's BMW, but I can't drive that anyway, because it's a standard and I wouldn't want to even if I could, because I would be waaayyy too nervous touch it.) And it has a lot of nice features and is bright red...which means I might be able to find it in the parking lot, finally. Hopefully this will mean no more walking around Wal-Mart's parking lot for 20 minutes searching for my car. I'm so nervous to drive it though, because it's new and I don't want to hurt it or get it messy....not that I didn't try to drive carefully in my old car, but the new car is...new...so that gives me anxiety! Plus, I promised to try to keep it cleaner, and so I really have to do that. It's a challenge. Not because I don't want to or don't try, but I'm a artist, I'm always late and I have ADD. I just don't pay attention to those things some days! But, I'm going to try harder for the sanity of my husband.