Did you put a boot on it...?

Soooooooooooooooooooo; God is so good. This was not an experience that would normally be pleasant but God always has a way of working things out for my good, even when I catch a case of random, transient Idiocy Disease.

Ok - yesterday, I went to lunch with one of my co-workers. It was a lovely day. The sun was blazing high in the noon day sky; the birds were chirping their songs of worship; a 400 year old lady pushed her 200 year old dog in a stroller; men walked down the streets in public in skinny jeans and tiny shirts (wtw?) and by the grace of God I was able to sit outside on the balcony of a great Italian restaurant and eat my lunch. It was a good lunch too - until my co-worker tried to eat a portabello mushroom and almost had an NBD.... (Nervous Breakdown - Ha!)

Then the weirdest thing happened......................................................

A police officer/parking guy walks up to my car, which is parked RIGHT in front of my face and starts to put a boot on my car. Now, the sad part is...it took me about 7 minutes to realize what was happening (as I watched him thinking - "Oh, someone is about to be BLOWN to DEFF out here in Old Town Alexandria. lol I mean someone is NOT gonna be able to drive their truck home today...") and we all know who that someone was.

Like a bat out of.........Southeast I jumped over the fence and dramatically ran down to the police officer throwing myself (calmly) at the mercy of his authorit-ay. With my country "gone with the wind voice" I said, "Oh no...what are you doing - what happened-..and yungin, why are you doing it in Old Town Alexandria in the middle of the day in front of ALL the white people on EERF and I am the only black girl out here today wif my co-worker except for the strange black lady walking around in BA-Dooty shorts. Please noooooooooooooooo - the cop actually laughed a little at either my acting skills or at my calamity. I told him that I lived 1000 miles away - he was like 1000 miles away in Maryland. I was like, "It's 1000 miles if I gotta walk home".... then I asked what did I do..he said, "you have a unpaid parking ticket from like 1989 and your tags are expired... - I was like nah-ah? Really, 1989? Was I driving in 1989 then he was like 2009...and I was like Oh....and he said well look, go to city hall (is it still called city hall in 2010? -they should call it a new name like "gimmie all your money plaza" that's a more fitting name. Anyway, he said go there and just pay for the ticket. Then I didn't know where it was so the guys from the restaurant were like we'll walk with you and I was like, "yay lets make a parade out of this public mockery of my life" - (dramatized) and all walk down the streets of Old Town in broad day light.....but I found humor in that and said to myself, "Lord, this could have been so much worse. So I want to thank you right now, for the blessing in that, I didn't pay the parking ticket, and I need to render to Cesar what is Cesar's or he's gonna make me wear a big YELLOW boot. So I thanked God, ran in City "gimmie all your money" hall and paid my parking ticket, making jokes and telling the people that it was ok, I should have paid the ticket that I don't ever remember getting EVER.....

I ran back to my car, and the cop was already taking the boot off...and gave me a verbal non-written warning about my tags and was like they are 3 days expired go get em done. I was thinking, "can I wait until a rainy day to get em don b/c it's really nice outside this week." but I kept that to myself and figured i'd do it as sooooon....as...poss....so anyway...

I was so happy - he waited for me to come back b/c he said I had such a good attitude about everything. I thought why wouldn't I, I'm the one who didn't pay the ticket. Then I thought about all the people who would have had a really bad attitude about their OWN mistakes and still would have been sitting out there this morning w/ a boot on their car and a $700.00 removal fee.

Needless to say, I ate lunch, got a discount there too, I kept my car, paid the ticket - not too bad it was only $500,000 sike...but it wasn't that bad and returned to sitting in the sun, on that warm day eating outside and laughing about the whole thing while blessing God for his tender mercies that are new to me every morning - and Lawd knows I need new ones every morning b/c I be wearing my other mercies out....

Thank You Lord, not just for paying the tickets, but for being God and being able to change the hearts of men.