THE AMATEUR PARKER … BY MELISSA BEAN STERZICK


J An Education in Parking


USTWHEN I THOUGHT I HADexpe- rienced most of what the world of park- ing has to offer, my daughter started kindergarten earlier this fall. In one week, we celebrated her first day of school, first soccer game and first loose tooth. The tooth has no impact on the


parking forecast, but parking for school and soccer is shaping up to be quite an effort.


I had no idea what we were in for that first day of classes.


We woke up early, dressed and fed the whole family, gathered the carefully packed backpack – full of lunch and a box of all the supplies California schools can no longer afford to provide – and took quite a few pictures. It was a very stressful and adorable event, a real milestone for any parent, especially when it’s your first child going to her first day of school. We left our house, which is seven minutes from the school


by car, at least 20 minutes before the opening bell and made good time. But when we reached the blocks closest to the school, we found that there was not a parking space to be had for more than a quarter of a mile.





The school is only amile plus a few blocks fromour home,


so we could have walked, but it was the first day, my husband had to leave directly for work, and there is amajor thoroughfare to be crossed on the way. So we drove, and because our chil- dren’s legs are short and that high-traffic street is six lanes across, we will continue to drive. We circled, the clock ticking, thoughts of the shame of


being late to the first day heavy on our minds, then finally gave up and parked in the nether reaches. The walk took 12 minutes, at least, and when we got to the


class, everybody was there, our 85-year-old teacher was doing her intro, and we were sincerely embarrassed. But that’s life and worse things happen every day. I wasmostly focused on getting through it all without sobbing out loud. Certainly, I cried, and so did our 2-year-old, when it was


time to say goodbye, but I didn’t bawl or hiccup, just quietly wiped the steady trickle down my cheeks and walked away. There were parents hanging on the gates outside the playground and kindergarteners thrashing and screaming until they threw up, and that just made us feel better about the whole thing. We might have underestimated the parking issues, we were


definitely late, and we were feeling a little heartbroken, too, but our daughter was taking it all well, and none of us had misbe-


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NOVEMBER 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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