yes, that was me who bravely took a parking spot from a police officer.

Today, I stole a parking spot from a police officer. Kind of. I was at the Quick Trip just north of the plaza on Main and it was crowded like it always is minutes before the 8 o’clock bell rings. Finding a parking spot is usually similar to finding a spot at the mall the day before Christmas. Spots are few and far between and all of the good ones are generally taken by semi-trucks that are double parked or by people who sit in their cars for several long minutes after reentering them to do things like read the paper, apply lipstick or drink coffee really, really slow. So when one of those people actually throws their car in reverse, causing reverse lights to ignite, it’s a fight to the finish to see what lucky displaced car gets to park. Today, it was “on” between me and a KCPD cop car.

It all started when I was on the side street getting ready to turn left into the Quick Trip parking lot. I noticed a police car headed toward me while approaching the same parking lot. Although I had plenty of time and room to make my left handed turn in front of the cop, I decided that I didn’t want to risk anything and that I would be a good, upstanding citizen by letting him go before me. He pulled into Quick Trip, and I followed. Only, he decided to cruise the entire lot, making a loop around the gas area, and I decided to wait behind the row of parked cars for a sighting of glorious reverse lights. So, I waited and waited and there was nothing quick about it until finally, this Camry decided to leave. And then, reappearing for its glorious second coming, the police car crept back into site from around the other side of the gas pumps with its nose pointed toward my spot. “Um, heck no,” I thought, as I put my turn signal on (if I was going to be halfway stealing a spot from a police officer, I figured I’d do it legally). So, my turn signal was on and I was looking into this cop car and the police officer seemed to be seriously intent upon parking in my spot — the spot that I had been waiting for. And so, with all of the balls that I have in me (which is zero, by the way), I pulled into the spot before he did. And I immediately felt as if I had done something horribly wrong, but I also knew I got away with it the second Mr. Cop and I were getting coffee at the same time and he looked at me and smiled and laughed. I smiled back and was laughing on the inside. And I felt tough — real tough — like the bad girls at my catholic all-girl high school that would smoke during lunch break. And it felt good.