M, while good at many many things, is terribly, terribly bad at paying his parking tickets. And when you have an un-garaged car that lives on the streets of Philadelphia, you get a lot of them. 

Thinking about the number of unpaid parking tickets he has sometimes gives me mild heartburn, so I generally have made a resolution not to involve myself in this part of his life.  But it pains me.

A few weekends ago, we went out for a drink with friends at Time, right smack in the middle of Philadelphia. We had been up in Fishtown with the car so we made the brave decision to drive there and try to find parking on the street—something that is extremely difficult to do on a Saturday night in Center City when it is raining. As it was. But, lo and behold: when we got there, there was a parking spot IN FRONT OF THE PLACE. A miracle!  We gloated. We should have known then.

The night got better: also at Time was Mayor Michael Nutter. 

High-fives were exchanged. 

We stayed for an hour or so and then got up to leave, still marveling at all the luck we had had so far. We walked outside to the conveniently parked car…..

…to find it BOOTED. 

While I put both fists into my mouth and chewed on them to stop the big fat “I told you so”  from catapulting out, M got on the phone to the city.  We had to drive down to DC the next day for a wedding.  It was around midnight. The odds were not in our favor.

Our friends found the whole thing amusing:

M, in a low moment, contemplated the idea of going back into Time to plead his case with the Mayor. 

All I really wanted was a photo of Nutter coming out of the restaurant in the same frame as M with his booted car.

Alas, it didn’t happen.

I went home and went to sleep. At three in the morning, M managed to get the boot-removal crew to come back around and de-boot him. The crew consisted of one middle-aged woman. According to M, she was very very nice. The next day, we drove down to the wedding in DC, where we spent the evening impersonating the respectable citizens that we clearly are not.

And his parking tickets are finally paid…..for now.