Day Twenty-Five: My Car Is Towed

Jay emerges from the bedroom wearing Chris’ fancy shoes.  He plans to wear them to his new job today.  He starts training.  Chris begins training on Tuesday.  They will be working together at Forge until April when they head back to New York.

Chris sees Jay wearing his best pair of shoes and asks, “Don't you have shoes?”

“They have a wood sole. They make too much noise,” Jay responds.
Chris thinks for a moment.  “Well these are loud too.” He turns to me, “I like to be heard.”  He turns back to Jay.  “What about the converse? They're black.”

Jay looks up at Chris with disgust. “Converse!?!” He shrieks.

Before dropping Chris off at work, I decide its time to go.  I love Miami but I got that itch asking, "what's next?"  Time to change the scenery.  I would like to be in New York this weekend so I am going to start making my way back.

“We want you to stay, but I get it.  I’m bored here.  That’s why we want to go back to New York.  I can’t blame you,”  Chris says.

I pack up the car and Lyla and I hit the road again. I turn the radio on and I'm Coming Home is playing.

I’m coming home, I’m coming home.  Tell the world I’m coming home.

I feel the warmth of the sun and shiver when I imagine the weather in New York. I am going to miss the sunshine.

It's 3:10.  Miami rush hour traffic.  I am crawling along Dade Blvd.  Before I get on the causeway, I look at my navigation, which tells me that I can expect to arrive at 12:03am.  Add another hour for the traffic and it isn’t hard to justify staying one more night.  I turn around, call Chris.  I'll leave tomorrow morning.

I join Chris at the Standard.  He is working, technically, but it is so quiet that he spends his time hanging out with me.  

Later in the evening, Chris and I pick Jay up on Flamingo drive as he is walking back from work.  I ask the boys what I should do about parking.  Their lot is a tow away zone.  They tell me to park there for now and they will try to find their parking sticker.  We run upstairs.  I notice Lyla finished her food so I run down to the car to get some more. I look at the spot where I left my car ten minutes ago.  It's gone.  I run back upstairs. Jay calls the number on the sign. We head to Collins to hail a cab.

Chris and Jay at the Tow Company

Our cab pulls in front of the tow company.  Chris is wearing his pajamas, Jay is wearing his work clothes and I am wearing a sundress and wedges.  We look like an unlikely bunch.  We knock on the window and a large pale woman with tattoos comes out of an office and stands behind two layers of glass, which appear to have protected her in the past.

I ask Chris to escort me to my car.  “Only one person!” a large man yells. 

“No! I'm not letting her go by herself," Chris says.  The man comes after me and grabs my arm. 

The lady behind the two layers of thick glass comes out and yells at the man, “It’s fine!  They can go.”  Before we leave the lot, we decide to put the top down.  Chris blasts Firework by Katy Perry and Jay hops in the back. 

We didn’t make it out for a drink.  Getting my car towed could only be this entertaining and fun with Chris and Jay. 

On the drive back, Jay reads on his phone that they pay homeless people to report vehicles that park in tow away zones, which explains the quick response time.  I park in a metered lot at the beach.  I’m not getting towed again.

How many New Yorkers does it take to pay a parking meter?