A Weird Welcome Home

I'm back from vacation and had a marvelous time! I promise to blog about it this weekend, but first, I want to share the homecoming my condo complex gave me.

Last week, I found a flyer hanging on my door stating that the condo parking lot was going to be refinished. The section with my parking spot would be worked on Wednesday, September 9, and the rest would be finished the next day. The flyer said that any cars that were still in the specified part of the parking lot at 8 a.m. on the day scheduled for work would be towed at the owners expense. I read through the flyer, puzzled over the map that illustrated which sections would be worked on when (the writing was TINY!), placed the flyer on the chair next to my front door so I wouldn't forget about it... and then promptly forgot about it.

Fast-forward to the day I returned home from my trip, which happened to be Wednesday, September 9. My mom picked me up from the airport and we were both a little surprised to see how many cars were parked alongside the road outside of the complex at 5 in the afternoon. That's when I remembered the parking lot work...that was scheduled for that very morning. For some reason, I was thinking my work wouldn't be done until the next day, so I didn't think much about it.

Then, I happened to take another glance at that flyer which was still lying on that chair next to my front door. Suddenly, I felt sick. I went outside to check my car.

It was gone.

Suddenly, the golden relaxation and happy memories from my trip flew out of my mind. I was ticked! And, of course, I was ticked at the property management company (PMC) that didn't give me more warning. I called them to find out what had happened to my car and since it was after 5pm they were closed. I left a message but didn't expect to hear anything before 9 the next day, and possibly they had a lot of angry people to return calls to, so I might not even hear from them until later! Grrr!

I called my mom, and left a message with my manager at work to let them know what was going on. Then I settled into being angry. I didn't want to pay for towing fees. I didn't want to be late for the 9 o'clock meeting at work. I didn't want to find a ride to the impound lot. I wanted to lie and say I had been out of town for 2 weeks and since the PMC only sent the flyer a week ahead of time I shouldn't be penalized.

I was trying very hard to ignore the fact that it had been me who was spacey. If I'd thought about it, I could have just left my car at my parents' house over the long weekend and avoided the whole thing. But it's so much easier and seemingly more satisfying to be mad at someone else!

After awhile, my better judgement finally kicked in, and although I was still mad, I forced myself to take responsibility and made an effort not to be angry at the PMC (although I still was). I tried to waste as little energy as possible on fueling my feelings of ill-use. I relaxed a bit, realized that in 10 years the whole situation wouldn't matter, and enjoyed catching up on as many of the programs my DVR had recorded during my vacation as I could.

The next morning, I called the PMC. A very nice girl we'll call "Michelle" answered and I told her what had happened. She gave me the name and number for Speedy Towing, and I suggested they give us more notice next time. However, it turns out my condo association had decided to only give us a week's warning. Would it have been so hard to give us a month's warning and then a reminder the week before? I don't think so. If you're going to make people pay for their cars to be towed, you better make sure they have enough time to make arrangements. What if I'd left town on Thursday morning and not returned until Wednesday? If I really hadn't received the flyer in time would I still have been charged?

I called the towing company and, guess what? They said they hadn't taken my car to an impound lot. Instead, it was simply moved to the part of my condo complex's parking lot that wasn't being refinished that day! If I had known that ahead of time, I could have saved myself a lot of grief! However, that section of the lot was scheduled to be worked on that morning... and since it was 9 a.m. already my car may have been towed again. But to where? Bowl of Cocoa Crispies in hand (which were gross, by the way), I ran outside to try to find my car.

I couldn't find it.

Trying not to panic, I pretty much walked around the entire lot until I found the tow truck. I asked the driver about my car. Miraculously, he said that he hadn't moved it yet this morning, and directed me to a parking lot I wasn't aware belonged to our complex! Also, he mentioned that if he had moved it, he would have just put it back in my assigned stall.

I realized that if I had come home from my trip ONE DAY later, I would have found my car in its still and not have known anything had happened. Crazy!

Long story short (too late!), I found my car and drove to work. On the way, Michelle at PMC called me back. She said that several people had called about their towed cars, that they'd only been towed to another section of the parking lot, and the condo association was paying for everything. They had never meant to charge the individual owners. Why then did they specifically state on that stupid flyer that we would be charged at our own expense? Ah well, I was glad to hear it. All was well, and I was even more glad that I'd tried so hard to let go of my anger the night before. I was right, it wasn't important enough to waste the energy on.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on my own version of the Truman Show and some producer engineers these situations just to see what I'll do.

Welcome home to me! Life is weird!