Listserv Drama in Action Part II

I had a real-life experience with parking drama, and the social deviance that good people will resort to!

I was driving home from a concert with my girlfriend and her two housemates. Their neighborhood is difficult to park in, and when we began our first circle around the block, he pointed to a white car near their house, and told a story about the car's owner. Supposedly, he informed our driver that he couldn't park there because it was technically his driveway, even though his car was often parked there, and there was no usable garage. He was "moving things," and told our driver to park somewhere else. When we finally found a spot, we were sort of in the red of a fire hydrant, and so our driver unloaded us passengers and headed off for another go-round. As he drove off, his partner began daydreaming about their own non-driveway, which has a curb cut to the street, but ends in a garage converted into a first-floor apartment. "We should make that OUR parking spot!" she grunted. "We'll nail up a little "No Parking" sign, and the city will take care of the rest, because they'll be parked in a driveway!." Someone else chimed in, "but then they'll ticket us too...." She had an even better idea: "We'll carry around the little placards in our CARS, we'll each have one, and hang it up every time on a nail we'll put there!" As we trudged the extra blocks to the house, the evil plot was unfolded with a fervor familiar to any listserv reader. But it quickly went the way of other listserv nastiness--into a puddle of potential compromise, and ambiguity: Digesting that last point, my rational minded girlfriend chimed in, "but eventually one of us will forget, and then WE'LL get a ticket." Oops.

"I guess so.
It was a good idea.
...Maybe still."

Parking brings out the worst in people: confirmed.