Russell Beattie

So we woke up this morning at just before 5 a.m. to get Ana and Alex ready for the airport - they're going back to Spain for the month while we get her visa stuff straightened out. I needed a job to prove I was financially stable before I could fill out the final paperwork to sponsor her in this country, so she's been here "visiting" since November, but her 90 days are almost up so we're not fucking with Ashcroft and she's going home to file the rest of the papers. Anyways, this morning at 5, I quickly showered and dressed and headed out to get the car to move it closer to the door so we wouldn't have far to treck with luggage and child in hand.

But I couldn't find it. I wandered around the streets around my apartment for a while sorta bewildered. I've done that before - parked it someplace new, and then forgotten about it. At first when you're parking on the street you remember right where you left it... but after a few months, you've parked everywhere and the memory of exactly where starts to blend together. I hadn't seen the car since Friday: we spent the weekend relaxing at home or walking up to the stores for last minute travel items. No reason to touch the car (or so I thought).

Well, I came back in after scouring the neighborhood - positive that where ever I had left the car, that it wasn't there now. Since I've played this game before in my previous life here in San Francisco, I immediately called City Tow and sure enough I had been parked in a Red Zone and was towed. Urgh. I know I wasn't *in* a red zone, I must have been touching it with my bumper though. Bastards!

Tick, tick, tick. Flight's at 8:00 a.m. and it's now 6 a.m. What to do, what to do... I was going to just grab a taxi, but the stroller that Ana needed for the airport was in the back of the car. She's making a connection in New York and needs it. Happily, at this hour, San Francisco is just waking up, so we decided to go for it. I called a taxi, which arrived almost as I was hanging up the phone, we piled in and rushed down to 850 Bryant to the Tow Garage and sure enough there wasn't a soul in line. I paid my $225 "Tow and storage" fee (why don't they fucking *call* you? It's not like they don't know who owns the car...) and then we ran around and picked up the car. WOohoo. Only to find two $50 parking tickets stuck to the windshield as well. $325. Joy.

Believe it or not, because the parking garage is actually on the way to the airport, all of that only caused us about 15 minutes side tracking and we were at the airport by quarter of 7:00, even after missing the exit (why the fuck did they *move* it so far back?!?!). After checking in (again no line - were we lucky this morning or not?) we had a half hour to "relax" before Ana and Alex had to get to the gate. Whew...

Of course, on the way back home I'm listening to NPR on the radio and hear there's this massive ice storm causing trouble all along the Eastern Seaboard... so hopefully there's no problems once Ana gets to New York. Urgh. What a morning.

Stay tuned.

-Russ