Parking ticket $40 + $2.99 in turkey bacon
Pretty sure most (normal) people when they get a parking ticket just get mad or bummed and move on. I, on the other hand, replay the events that resulted in the ticket.
How I got distracted
I was finishing at the gym and my parking app buzzed that I had 10 minutes left on my meter. Perfect, my car was only a block away, so plenty of time to de-germ with Dexter and be out the door.
Wait, who is Dexter?
Dexter is the name I gave the UVC light thing at the gym that kills germs on electronics, because “the UVC light thing that kills germs on electronics” was too wordy. Plus, it is more fun to say I need to visit Dexter! (Side note, I also believe everything with a face needs a name, but more on that later.)
Getting the parking ticket
While waiting the whole 30 seconds for the UV process to do its thing, I checked my work email and got side tracked. Half way to my car I realized i forgot my personal phone with Dexter and had to go back. As I rounded the corner to my car I saw the woman put the horrible bright orange ticket under My windshield.
She was watching me intently as I approached my car preparing for my reaction. I grabbed the ticket and said, “Seriously, 1 minute expired?!?!” (The app had me good till 8:26am and it was 8:27am when she was printing the ticket.) She responded that they only see it is expired or not, not WHEN it expired. I said okay and got in my car. She was just doing her job and I could not argue it was not expired.
Might as well get my money’s worth
I got back out of my car, and put the ticket back under the wiper. She was again watching me intently and probably bracing for an argument, but I just said, “I’m assuming you can’t give me another ticket 2 minutes after you issued the first one, so might as well get my moneys worth and run an errand!”
What about the turkey bacon
Separate incident, but I lost my turkey bacon and can only assume it was because I was multitasking again.
I took a few pieces out Saturday morning and *thought* I put the rest in the fridge, but later that day noticed it was not there 🤔. I looked in the trash, nope, where else would it be? Two days later I found it in with the plastic bags…
Takeaway
Multitasking, although unavoidable at times, does have a cost to it. Usually it is in lost productivity and the inability to be present which enables you to do your best, but sometimes it is actually quantifiable. In this case is cost me $42.99!