This photo was taken exactly seven years and seven days ago on my thirty-fifth birthday.
The reason for the semi-amused, semi-perturbed look on my semi-chunky face is because even though it is a little after 6:30 in the morning, someone has decided to park their car in the one space (of the roughly two dozen available in the lot) that I have parked in every day for the last three school years.
Funny, yes, annoying, hell yes. And on my birthday, even!!
As I would come to find out later that day, the entire stunt was orchestrated by my boss and school principal, Dee Brummett, who witnessed my reaction to the unprecedented event of losing my beloved parking space from the relative safety behind a curtain-drawn window in her office.
Apparently Dee had borrowed her son’s car, arrived at o’dark thirty, parked the heap in “my” space, and hid out in her trailer awaiting my arrival. (Recall at the time that the administration offices were in a portable due to campus-wide construction).
Although I didn’t realize it in the moment but I was forced to confront a serious issue of mine at the time. Why was I so programmed to park in the same spot day after month after year when any other one would have sufficed? If I couldn’t muster the intestinal fortitude to find a different space, what did that portend about the possibility of changing things in other areas of my life?
In retrospect I have learned — with a lot of help from those around me — to just let go of the seriously insignificant crap. Stuff like getting to school early enough to make sure you get your favorite parking space or the order you put your shoes and socks on (left sock, left shoe followed by right sock, right shoe).
While I have by no stretch of the imagination mastered this vitally important life skill, I have made some serious strides in the right direction. You will never again hear me lose my mind over a lost parking spot.
Granted, I no longer drive anymore, but still.
*Note to the curious: The word WORD at the time was my personal catchphrase, hence its inclusion on the sign located on the rogue vehicle’s back end.
The Adventures of ALS Boy 
That’s just hilarious what they did! How clever of them!
Okay, so I’ll confront my own baggage about the things that I like to do “just so,” and think about whether it’s really that big a deal so maybe I can also begin to let go of that insignificant crap.
But I’m reminded of a very old episode of All in the Family (for those of you old enough to remember, a very politically incorrect show from the 70’s), where Archie was having an argument about how one should put on one’s socks and shoes. Do you do a sock and a sock, then a shoe and a shoe? Or do you do a sock and a shoe, then the other sock and shoe? And if you do socks before shoes and there’s a fire in the house, then you risk having to run outside with no shoes at all. But if you do one sock and one shoe then you have to HOP outside on one foot. And it just went on and on in similar (but much stupider) fashion to “Who’s on First.”
What I really want to know is – did they move the beater car so you could have “your” space back? And where did you park the next day???
🙂
Karen
I remember when this happened! You know you were much loved for someone to go through all of the work to carry it off. It was pretty funny.
I love this post!! I remember that happening too! Word, brutha
I also have to say I am always admiring of not only what you write, but how you write it. Ingenious.
e.g.: day after month after year
Happy Belated Birthday Jason!