This morning after I got back from my no-sleep, ran calls all night 24-hour shift, I took a quick nap at my Aunt and Uncle’s (their guest bed is super comfy, that thing sucks you in, I swear), then packed up and headed into the city.  Earl and I had a coffee date, so I brought Linus by his office to pick him up.  I think it was a combination of me being exhausted and also excited to see Earl, who I hadn’t seen in a few days, but I wasn’t very careful about where I parked.  Normally I am hyper-aware of tow zones and things of that nature.  After all, I managed to live in Manhattan for the past six years and only get a car towed once (My Tacoma truck towed from W58th St on the very weekend I moved in).

But, I think the deadly combo of being exhausted and distracted at the enticing prospect of soon receiving a bear-hug from Earl made me let my guard down.  Apparently I parked in a “temporary tow” zone which basically turns into a no-parking zone during commuting times.  Gah.

Not knowing, I even paid the meter and felt like a responsible citizen as Earl and I headed out for coffee.  After our date (and Linus’ debut at his office, where he was a Superstar and lapped up attention from dozens of people- they have been discussing making him the “mascot” dog and even putting him on their website- lol!) I walked and walked.  I couldn’t find the car.  I walked and walked some more and realized- dang it, probably towed.  At least I had the freaking dog WITH me and he wasn’t IN the car when it had gotten towed.  Could you imagine??  I would have been hyperventilating with worry for Buddy.  Call 311 and get the towing info- yep, they have it, and I am dinged with at cool $250 towing fee for being dumb.

The interesting part of all this- when I go and pick up the Jeep at the impound, it turns out I was spared an additional $100 “emergency brake” flat-bed truck fee.  I guess if you have the e-brake on, they normally have to flat-bed tow your car instead of regular tow it, for which they charge you an extra $100.  In my case, I *did* have the e-brake on (parked on a hill, so I did the turn the tire to the curb and e-brake), however apparently the ticketing policeman decided to slim jim into my car for me and turn it off, and spare me the fee.  The impound attendant let me know this because I asked how the e-brake had been turned off (since the car was still locked when I picked it up and obviously I had the keys on me).  The attendant said to me, “I bet he saw your EMT uniform and decided to cut you a break.”

Huh.  I had washed my uniform this morning at my aunts and had laid it out on across the seats of the Jeep to dry (don’t dry that stuff, it’s tight and uncomfortable enough to begin with), and have to admit, it WAS prominently displayed where any ticketing/towing officer would see it.  And I had a lot of other junk in the Jeep (laptop, Linus’ kennel in the back, tons of clothes and books from the weekend), even a bunch of spare cash in the dash, but nothing else was touched.  So they were obviously doing me a favor to go through that extra effort.  Interesting.  I have heard of a lot of EMS people getting out of tickets and things when police see the EMS certificate in your wallet.  But if that really was the case here, I wonder why they just didn’t tow me at all.  Or, who knows- maybe they were just too lazy to get the flatbed truck.  :P