Note to Self: When Parking Downtown

Dear Self,

You know how you are not very detail-oriented and not so organized, so please stop telling me that you can keep track of little pieces of paper, such as, just for a hypothetical--actually not so--example, let's say, one of those parking ticket card thingys you get when you drive into a parking garage. Self, you cannot do it, and in fact, tonight, you didn't do it and now you are FORTY-SIX DOLLARS poorer. That's right, two times the maximum fee for parking in that Millennium Park parking garage that Mayor Daley is and will be trying to pay for with my money (he's a lot closer as of tonight) for years to come.

So self, please take to heart the advice of the attendant who charged my card and let me out of the garage: leave that stub in the car! Never mind the ubiquitous signs directing you to "Take your ticket so you can pay when you exit". B%^$&#*@!! It's a siren call, they are trying to convince me that I will still have that little scrap of paper when I get back to my car, but as I know now, I actually probably won't, so from now on, hands off the ticket! What does "from now on" really mean though, self, because I'm thinking that the next two and a half trips downtown, kids or no kids, I am not allowed to drive. Only then will I begin to come up sort of even, right?

Love, Me