Parking Ticket Wars

Hello everyone.

So I suppose my 'photography' blog is going to turn into photography/my life blog. I don't 

want to make a huge FB status so I will just tell you all about our parking ticket wars 

here...

It all started on June 1st. Husband went out the door to go to work, but came back in with 

two summons (one for each of our cars, and $25 each) to appear in court on August 6th because we had 

parked in the 'wrong direction' on our street. We bought this house in October 2011 and 

had never heard that we had to park in any certain direction on our two-way street. So that 

day, I started typing my objection letter which they had to receive in at least 10 business 

days. I mailed them in time, and anxiously waited our court date.

Yesterday, August 5th, I called the municipal court to see if they would fax me a copy of 

my letters because I hadn't saved it. They were both the same letter with the exception of 

our license plate numbers. Here is the letter:

When I spoke to the court secretary, they could not find the 2nd letter (for my car). I told 

them to make a note for the judge that I did, in fact, send it at the same time as the letter 

they found & it may have gotten lost in the mail. 

So we both leave work around 4:30 to be at city hall at 5pm sharp, because we're 

respectful like that. We sit...and sit, and sit some more. The judge talks for a bit, making us 

all feel like we have 2 options, plead guilty or not guilty! If you plead guilty you pay the 

fine, not guilty and you have to go through a trial and blah, blah, blah...

While we are waiting, our neighbor (who we knew received the same citation as us) went 

straight to one of the cops & spoke with him for a minute. The cop eventually took the 

ticket from her and she left! What?! So angry at this point. I made a mental note to mention 

this to mister judge...hmph!

FINALLY, around 6:15 they call my name...

I go up and lay out my letter & both parking tickets and explain to mister judge that the 

other letter must have gotten lost in the mail. Here is our conversation:

Mister judge: "How are you today?"
Me: "Hungry, this is cutting in to my dinnertime..."
Mister judge: "Oh, haha, you're supposed to eat before you come!"
Me: "Yea, I was at work ;)"
Mister judge: (as I lay out my papers) "Oh wow, you came prepared!"
Me: "Yea well."
Mister Judge (while reading my letter): "You should get this dismissed just for using the word 'commence' properly! What do you do for a living?"
Me (laughing because he probably didn't expect my answer): "I'm an administrative processor at a cemetery..."

I then told him about watching the cop take my neighbor's ticket and pushing it to the side...
Mister judge: "Well, we will just do for you what he did for her, have a great evening."

Andrew didn't have to go up, we left (me smiling ear to ear feeling like Wonder 

Woman/lawyer) and have a victory dinner at my favorite place, Olive Garden.

This is the story of our parking ticket wars.