'Fire is always lulzy. I mean, wait, no it's not.' by Kara
Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 10:45 AM

Yes, this issue is a long one.

So moving day's been put off another week, which I'm mildly glad of ... I still want to move as much on my own as possible so that the actual furniture-shifting is as quick and dirty as possible. (Plus it's only fair.)

So yesterday I loaded up everything in my living room that was too heavy or that I won't want or need for a week (I am not packing in my PS2 for that long when I'm 10 stages away from finishing MX) and that I could fit. Since I was going down that way anyway for the company party, I figured I'd go early, do some unloading, maybe do some low-level organising, and then amble in during drinks fashionably on time.

Now, the new place has numbered parking spaces (and spaces for guests). As they're just now under new management, they're going to switch to decals in '09. But not quite yet. They're working on other stuff first, like landscaping and more cable connections. (Thank fuck for wireless 'til then.) So at the moment, it's just take my spot and be glad of guest spots within human walking distance. That said, I would prefer no walking distance if I'm unloading multiple heavy boxes and the occasional small piece of furniture.

All the spots were taken. Including mine.

Now I had four options. One was find the closest guest spot, which was too far away for any kind of moving. The second was to double-park (since there was nowhere else along the kerb), but I see no point in paying the idiocy forward, and with my luck a car owner would come out in the meantime. Third option was to park behind the interloper, but I don't want people to discover the presence of a new neighbour on anything but my terms ... and being pegged as a bitch is not how I want to make my entrance. (And to be fair, they're probably used to the place being empty, and I won't have time to make any 'Hi I'm new' rounds just yet.)

Still bugged me, though, even if I had no desire to retaliate in what I thought was a pretty damn unfair way. So I did leave a note explaining that I'm moving in right now, so please do not park in my space anymore. (With the appropriate passive-aggressive cartoon frowny-face.) The vehicle was a woefully beat-up two-tone (primer blue and primer grey) pickup with a little plastic naked lady hanging from the rear view mirror, so I'm not sure how reasonable the owner of the car is.

Don't want to tell on them to the rental office ('Someone here is using a new resident's parking space, and we're all staying after class until someone fesses up'), so I'm hoping it really was just a matter of the guy -- I'm assuming that truck belongs to a dude -- plain not knowing.

Another option occurs to me. The note could have said 'In return for me letting you use my space tonight, you have to help me move.'

... nah.

If you have been, back orf.