Reason 283

Parking karma. I must have done some remarkably kind act recently because my parking karma has been off the charts. I've been scoring free spots all over town and basking in the joy that comes with snagging a spot big enough for a station wagon in a city overcrowded with SUVs. A few weeks ago I got my mini-golf fix at Smash Putt, an apocalyptic art installation send up of putt putt in the SoDo district, which is notorious for its lack of street parking. To top it off, a Mariner's game was going on, which meant every lot in the area was charging a minimum of fifteen bucks and your first born child. Fate smiled upon me, though, and I found a free spot two blocks from the Smash Putt building, which was especially sweet since Seattle was experiencing a rare torrential downpour and my friend and I were without the appropriate rain gear. After golf, we decided to swing by a dessert cafe on Capitol Hill, a neighborhood known for its overabundance of disgruntled hipsters and dirth of parking spaces near the main drag. Once again, Gladys the parking goddess poured her love down on my Subaru, granting us a street spot right next to Dilettante. We chose a couple of decadent slices of chocolate cake and headed to my friend's house to watch Caddyshack (it was, afterall, a night of golf). He lives in a condo in a cul-de-sac in the heart of Seattle, which means there are about five parking spots on the street for people visiting one of a hundred people who live on that block. Lo and behold, a giant space was available directly across from his building! I was almost tempted to leave my car there and walk home so I wouldn't have to give up my six feet of concrete. As if those three parking experiences weren't satisfying enough, the next week the same friend and I went to the Puyallup Fair (more on that in another post) and found a free chunk of space practically inside the fairgrounds that was just perfect for his little Golf. Clearly, all of the times I have let drivers merge into my lane has finally paid off and I have been blessed with the gift of locating free parking in a city that prefers to charge an arm and a leg at the meter. You better get up here quick, Jason, before my karma runs out and it's back to circling the block twenty times. Maybe we should spend an afternoon driving from neighborhood to neighborhood just to take advantage of my luck before it disappears. I'll start making a playlist for my iPod and you start prepping your bum for endless stretches of sitting on squishy beige upholstery.