I am now officially a criminal. My mother received three warrants threatening arrest if I don’t pay up my parking tickets within 14 days. Suffice to say, she freaked out. My fines will be paid today. At least, the three that led to those warrants. (The pending 3 will have to wait.)
On my way to work, thoughts of what I could possibly do to the management were swirling in my head. Write a letter? Been done too many times. Go off during work hours to pay my fines and then tell them it’s their fault I have to do so when they question me? Doubt they’ll notice it, and it’ll probably only get me into trouble with my editor (note: editor and management are two different parties). Claim compensation for the fines? They didn’t even raise our mileage claims when the petrol prices went up, which I believe in certain countries would have entitled us to paid strike. They make every last cent a Very Big Deal indeed. Strike? Yeah, right. Alone? March into the manager’s office and tell him exactly how I feel? Tried and tested (and failed) as well.
I read somewhere that keeping anger in is unhealthy. Everyone knows that. It probably makes me age faster as well, which is of course not a good thing. Perhaps it would be better to throw caution (and maturity) to the wind and just throw something at the manager or CEO. Entirely by accident of course. Or better still, I’ll just throw a molotov cocktail into one of their rooms and give us all the rest of the month off.
I bet few of you knew I had such a violent streak in me.
Then my mum had to add, “Why didn’t you pray every time you park your car that God will make your car invisible to the police? I told you to do it…” Yes, she is One Of Those. So maybe I’m of little faith, but I really don’t see the officers issuing tickets to the whole row of cars and missing out mine in the middle. Besides, I’m not sure I want that to happen. Will it mean my Christian colleagues are of little faith then? What if we all pray the same thing, will the officers only come and issue tickets to say, cars number 1,2,5,8,9?
Let’s not push the responsibility here. I am breaking the law after all. I do not deny that I deserve the tickets. All I’m saying is the management should pay. Both literally and figuratively.
I need a big soft punching bag.
Epilogue:
By the way, my colleague has since informed me that they don’t actually arrest you. They merely track you down and clamp your car. Imagine my dad’s face if he were to see that.
