kate, I think it's just a warning...

After reading Rach's blog about her nice fine from some sort of reckless driving, I thought I would enlighten you all with my recent luck with parking enforcement.

A couple of weekends ago Dustin (that's a name from the past now isn't it?) was having a house warming party and because I hadn't seen him since before Christmas I decided that maybe I would be a good friend and drop by. Of course I made Ben accompany me so I didn't stay the whole night and well, I just usually drag Ben everywhere I can get him to go. Anyways, we go to this apartment, which I'm sorry, it is a really nice apartment, but in a scary little neighborhood. Ben and I are pleased with our close parking and head up to the apartment, where we stay no more than 25 minutes, please note 25 minutes. We make nice and give Dustin a little house warming something something and decide to take off.

We get in the car and I notice a paper that is attached to my windshield. A little irritated I get out of the car to get it and then look to see that some little parking enforcer decided to write me a little ticket saying that I was not parked in a stall, and was blocking the unloading zone for the handicap stall. Ben, being the optimist that he is, says "Kate, I think it's just a warning." In his defense, there was no apparent amount attached to this mistake that I had made and for a brief moment I hoped to believe him...until I saw the code for my sweet ticket. Don't worry, I was written up for the largest parking ticket possible. $100 for blocking a handicap loading zone. The lines were not clearly marked, it was 10:45 at night, and it was raining...therefore, Ben and I thought that it was a legitimate parking stall. After a few pictures, a plea to the one man jury at the court house, and a $70 reduction...the ticket has been paid. I feel that pleading my case was worth getting $70 knocked off.

Too bad this is not the end of my story...I think the Zions parking people are out to make a living off of parking violations. Saturday night Ben and I went to see a play at the Off Broadway Theatre and since there is no parking around there we thought the most logical place was to park at Wasatch. In normal Kati and Ben fashion we were running behind and thus to speed up the process I decided to park in the open lot instead of the covered parking. Well, who knew that the Zions parking enforcement would be working on a Saturday night? Not me...thats for sure. All of the Wasatch stalls were taken and so I used the "Reserved Parking" which I have done so many times before. This time...I have a nice $10 ticket to show for it.