The Parking Spot
Driving is not something I'm used to being nervous about. It was so easy to get around Tulsa, and Oklahoma City wasn't bad either. You pull out of your driveway, drive where you want to go (possibly using a GPS or directions if you're unsure of how to get there), park in a huge, comfy, free parking lot, and waltz right in to your destination.
Before now, the only place I have lived where I was nervous about driving was Mozambique, and I managed to spend two years there avoiding it. It was one of my failures as a missionary. There were two major obstacles for me there: driving on the left-hand side of the road and driving a stick-shift. When we were teenagers, Harvey tried to teach me to drive his manual little white Beamer a few times, but it never stuck. He tried again in Maputo, again to no avail. Thankfully, my inability to drive there never got us in a bind.
It's different here. My driving anxiety is due to other factors. First, if you know me, you know that I am and always have been bad with directions. I get lost easily, and I tend to panic. Also, the streets here are crazy. To me, it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to the way the streets are laid out. You have streets going north, south, east, and west, but then you have streets going southeast/northwest and curvy streets weaving throughout. I don't have a good sense of the layout of the district and the surrounding suburbs yet, so if I take a wrong turn, I can't just figure my way back to where I want to go.
Add to those issues construction--construction to which the GPS is oblivious. If the construction takes me out of the GPS route, I don't know what to do. It will recalculate, but sometimes it thinks I just missed a turn or exit and will try to turn me around and take me back the same way. (But I am grateful for the GPS. It is my friend. Thank you, Bri, Michelle, and Sandy for this awesome gift that I use every day!)
And the final driving nightmare for me in DC: parallel parking. I can deal with the meters, and so far I have eventually made it everywhere I've tried to go, but I cannot parallel park. When did I ever need to know how to do that in Oklahoma (other than for my driving test 20 years ago)? It just wasn't necessary. But it's looking like it's going to be necessary here, that is, if I want to be able to drive anywhere in the city. There's always public transportation; it can be the most convenient method, and I've used it several times. But sometimes it takes much more time than driving, with all the stops and transfers and walking.
Last Friday I faced this dilemma. I had plans to go an exhibit at the Kennedy Center with a friend I had met at one of the churches we visited. She lives between my house and there. At first I was planning to take the Metro and meet her there. But when I looked at the travel times, the Metro route was going to take 40 minutes, while driving would take 20. My friend has two boys two and under, and she said it was too hard for her to take the Metro with them, so she was going to drive. We couldn't ride together because of the car seat situation with her two boys and Judah. So I decided I would give driving a try--I would drive to her house and then follow her to the KC. She has lived here many years and knew how to get there.
Before now, the only place I have lived where I was nervous about driving was Mozambique, and I managed to spend two years there avoiding it. It was one of my failures as a missionary. There were two major obstacles for me there: driving on the left-hand side of the road and driving a stick-shift. When we were teenagers, Harvey tried to teach me to drive his manual little white Beamer a few times, but it never stuck. He tried again in Maputo, again to no avail. Thankfully, my inability to drive there never got us in a bind.
It's different here. My driving anxiety is due to other factors. First, if you know me, you know that I am and always have been bad with directions. I get lost easily, and I tend to panic. Also, the streets here are crazy. To me, it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to the way the streets are laid out. You have streets going north, south, east, and west, but then you have streets going southeast/northwest and curvy streets weaving throughout. I don't have a good sense of the layout of the district and the surrounding suburbs yet, so if I take a wrong turn, I can't just figure my way back to where I want to go.
Add to those issues construction--construction to which the GPS is oblivious. If the construction takes me out of the GPS route, I don't know what to do. It will recalculate, but sometimes it thinks I just missed a turn or exit and will try to turn me around and take me back the same way. (But I am grateful for the GPS. It is my friend. Thank you, Bri, Michelle, and Sandy for this awesome gift that I use every day!)
And the final driving nightmare for me in DC: parallel parking. I can deal with the meters, and so far I have eventually made it everywhere I've tried to go, but I cannot parallel park. When did I ever need to know how to do that in Oklahoma (other than for my driving test 20 years ago)? It just wasn't necessary. But it's looking like it's going to be necessary here, that is, if I want to be able to drive anywhere in the city. There's always public transportation; it can be the most convenient method, and I've used it several times. But sometimes it takes much more time than driving, with all the stops and transfers and walking.
Last Friday I faced this dilemma. I had plans to go an exhibit at the Kennedy Center with a friend I had met at one of the churches we visited. She lives between my house and there. At first I was planning to take the Metro and meet her there. But when I looked at the travel times, the Metro route was going to take 40 minutes, while driving would take 20. My friend has two boys two and under, and she said it was too hard for her to take the Metro with them, so she was going to drive. We couldn't ride together because of the car seat situation with her two boys and Judah. So I decided I would give driving a try--I would drive to her house and then follow her to the KC. She has lived here many years and knew how to get there.
In the days leading up to this outing, I was so nervous about the driving--and the parking--that I couldn't look forward to spending time with my new friend and seeing the Kennedy Center; instead I was almost dreading it. I prayed about it a lot, and I asked Harvey to as well.
Friday arrived. The first challenge of the day was finding a spot by my friend's house in Capitol Hill. No, sorry, the first one was actually getting to her house. I made a mistake on the highway, but I did what I always do when that happens: call Harvey. He talked me through the re-route, and I didn’t lose too much time or get lost, so it turned out ok. Then as I passed her house, I noticed a couple of adjacent open spots under a bridge, where I wouldn’t have to parallel park. I made it into one of those and used my handy, newly downloaded parking meter app (thank you, inventor of Parkmobile!) to pay and set my time. Mission 1 accomplished.
After spending about an hour at her house chatting and letting our kids play, we headed to the KC. Mission 2: following my friend without getting separated. She did a good job allowing me to stay with her. I followed her with no problems, which led to the next mission: parking at the KC.
As we approached the street where we were planning to park, she motioned to me to take a spot where I would have to parallel park, and she kept going and turned around and parked the other direction on the street, also a parallel parking job. I started to try to do it myself. I pulled up next to the car in front, and then I started to back up sharply to the right to wedge my giant Sequoia into the small space. As I got to the point where I started to turn back to the left, I realized I was not going to make it. Thankfully, my friend ran up and offered to do it for me. I am not proud when it comes to parallel parking. I let her get in (she had left her boys in her car). As I watched from the sidewalk, a man ran up and said something to her--all I heard was “Is this your car?” Then she got out and let him get in, and he parked the car for me, with Judah sitting in the back seat. My friend was smart enough to stand in the road so he couldn’t drive off with Judah. Amazingly, he parked the car, made some friendly remarks and gave me a few parking tips, and ran back into the building where I guess he was working. When I thanked him, he said it was no problem, that he was “on government time,” whatever that meant. (Did God send him there to park for me? I think that’s not an unlikely possibility.)
As we approached the street where we were planning to park, she motioned to me to take a spot where I would have to parallel park, and she kept going and turned around and parked the other direction on the street, also a parallel parking job. I started to try to do it myself. I pulled up next to the car in front, and then I started to back up sharply to the right to wedge my giant Sequoia into the small space. As I got to the point where I started to turn back to the left, I realized I was not going to make it. Thankfully, my friend ran up and offered to do it for me. I am not proud when it comes to parallel parking. I let her get in (she had left her boys in her car). As I watched from the sidewalk, a man ran up and said something to her--all I heard was “Is this your car?” Then she got out and let him get in, and he parked the car for me, with Judah sitting in the back seat. My friend was smart enough to stand in the road so he couldn’t drive off with Judah. Amazingly, he parked the car, made some friendly remarks and gave me a few parking tips, and ran back into the building where I guess he was working. When I thanked him, he said it was no problem, that he was “on government time,” whatever that meant. (Did God send him there to park for me? I think that’s not an unlikely possibility.)
So my friend and I headed into the KC. It was snowing lightly. As we entered, we saw a huge art installation of men’s button-down shirts hung from the ceiling like giant sails. It was amazing. Then we headed to the Lego exhibit, which was actually part of a larger exhibit of Nordic art and culture. The Lego area itself wasn’t wasn’t that entertaining for our toddlers, but the exhibit as a whole was interesting, and we spent about 45 minutes looking around and letting the kids explore.
We left around 12:30, and my final two driving missions turned out to be a breeze. My friend helped direct me to edge out of the tight parking spot, and GPS (and Harvey) got me home safe and sound. So everything I feared turned out just fine, thanks to prayer and God’s favor, in the form of a generous new friend and a parallel parking mystery man. Hope he's around next time I'm in a parking bind! Or maybe I will just learn how to do it myself. Probably a wiser plan.
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