Trapped!

I go to church every Sunday, but my husband works every Sunday. Often I will go out to lunch afterwards with a friend, which is what I did yesterday. I drove, and we ended up spending the day together going shopping and doing some other stuff.

Our church has a parking problem on Sunday morning, so there is a bank parking deck right across the street that allows us to park for free. I never park there, but she does, so that's where I dropped her off yesterday evening. Not two minutes later, I get a call on my cell.

Her: Bossy! I'm trapped in the parking lot!
Me: WHAT?
Her: I can't get out.
Me: OK, I'll be right there.

So, I parked and walked across the street to the parking lot where she was just sitting in her car at the exit, waiting for the electronic arm to go up. Apparently it is usually up on Sunday afternoons so the church folk can get out, but I guess they put it back down after a certain time.

Well, I tried to open it for her manually, and I am sure you can guess that was a failed mission. So I hopped in the car with her and we rode around the parking lot. We saw a man walking through and he said we'd have to pay $3 to an automated thing to get out. Instead of seeing that as the opportunity it was to actually LEAVE the parking deck, she told him, and I quote, that he was "out of his damn mind".

All of a sudden, the humor of this situation struck us, so we are cackling loudly and driving through the parking deck, looking for any possible exit. Every exit we came upon had an electronic arm that was firmly shut against us.

Finally we saw a car about to leave the parking lot. We were pretty sure we could follow them out under the arm, just like you do if you've ever lived in a gated community and forget your card. So, as the car pulls out, the driver taking his own sweet time, we try to get through the exit.

WHAM. Down came the arm on the car. We are laughing so hard at this point it didn't even matter. Oh! Here comes another car, so we try it again, to no avail.

We finally decide we're just going to have to pay the three dollars, and see an exit. We pull up to the automated attendant, who demands TEN dollars to let us out. Tires squeal as my friend yells, "oh hell no" and tries to find another exit.

We find one that looks broken, so I hop out and try to lift the arm. Nothing. We finally decide there is nothing else to do but pay the money, or else we were going to have to spend the night driving through the parking lot waiting for someone to help us get out.

We ride back up to the top, where we pay the three dollars and finally make it out of the lot. In the grand scheme of things, I guess three dollars was a small price to pay our freedom. Plus, we sure did laugh a lot.