(not the actual rule-enforcer with a watch, but similar)
—
went to park in a structure
across the street
from where i was having my hair cut at 10:00
it was 9:55 when i arrived
pulled into a spot on the ground floor
knowing the lower floors open to the public at 10:oo
to leave room for customers
yes, i am a customer
assumed it would take a couple of minutes
to grab my things and leave my car
so the timing should work out
not thinking it would be an issue
when i turned my car off
an officer on foot
waved and rushed up to my car
as soon as i looked at him
i guessed
it would indeed be an issue
he told me i couldn’t park there
because it wasn’t yet 10:00
i said that i planned
on it being 10:00
by the time i gathered my things
and left my car
no, that is not the rule
if you do this, everyone is going to do this
when i had pulled in, most all of the floor was empty
other than a few people at the ev chargers
while he was chatting with me
others pulled in
parked all around me on the ground floor
he insisted that i move up to a higher floor
then began rushing over to each car
to say the same thing to them
i moved up to the next floor
lo and behold
there he was again
saying we all would have to move
to at least the 4th floor as the sign said
i continued winding around
moving up to the higher floors
which were packed from the workers
who had to arrive early
along with
my fellow parkers
who he had forced to move to the top
so the only place left to park was on the roof
at that point some people who had been forced to move up
had started driving down to lower floors
now that it was officially past 10:00
it had turned into a french farce
left my car on the roof
met up with a uni student
who also had been pushed up to the top
he gave me a nod
‘that guy’s like a mall cop.’
yep.
we took 7 flights of stairs
down to the ground where we’d started
little bit late for my appointment
i’m sure all of us who had driven to the top
had made it out of
the early curfew time at that point
so it had really been a ridiculous exercise
i got the feel he might not be a person
who was flexible
felt more comfortable
with hard and fast rules
i imagine
he must have been exhausted
chasing after all those cars
the salon
booked a 10:15 slot for my next appointment.
—
‘one had followed the rules, and one had not. but the problem with rules… was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. when, in fact, most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on.’
– Celeste Ng
—
*Alton Brown (born 1962) is an American tv personality, food show presenter, author, voice actor, YouTuber, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Ford Network show Good Eats as well as other shows on the network. Brown is also a best-selling author of several books on food and cooking.
*Celeste Ng (born 1980) is an American writer and novelist.Her short stories have been published in a variety of literary journals. Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, won the Amazon Book of the Year Award. Her second book, Little Fires Everywhere, was made into a TV miniseries.
