Morning Annoyance: Piss-Poor Parkers

Today I drove to work, and because I'm feeling under the weather, I came in late. Since I don't drive to work usually, I don't have parking here, so I'm forced to park with the masses in the giant pay parking deck.

The thing about this parking deck is all of the spots are laid out in a diagonal pattern. You know, like this: \ \ \ \ \ \. It's not that difficult. You just turn the wheel at a 45 degree angle instead of making a 90 degree turn.

And yet...

I had to drive around and around, down five levels before I could find a spot. And not because all of them were full--because 1) there are idiots who just get their vehicles in the general vicinity of "between the lines" and hop out, or 2) there are assholes who take up two spots without a second thought. This behavior pisses me off royally.

I was finally forced to squeeze my Eclipse between a minivan and an SUV. I had several bags to bring in, and as there was no way in hell I was getting my body AND those bags out at the same time, I opened the door and started swinging them out onto the pavement, trying to leave a foot or two of open space for me to crawl out onto. As I was reaching over into the passenger seat floorboard, I noticed that my side view mirror was basically directly across from where the person to my right would be opening their door. While I had already decided I didn't care that this person was going to have to squish into his or her vehicle, I realized that even a tiny child wouldn't be able to get in with the mirror right there. So I turned the car back on and backed up just a little bit. At least now they can open their door a good 10 or 12 inches. If they are wider than that, well... you shouldn't have parked over the yellow line, jerk.

I will end this with a plea. If you ever find yourself in a tight fitting parking deck, especially if it's one that will most likely fill up at some point during the day, park between the freaking lines. And by park between the lines I mean park your car, then open the door or get out and LOOK AT WHERE YOU HAVE PARKED. There should be roughly equal amounts of space between your car and the yellow lines on BOTH SIDES.

And those little white paint marks that might be on the minivan to the left of where my car is parked now? Dude, you asked for it. I tried to be gentle, but a girl has got to get her ass out of the car at some point.