Lesson Learned

So Monday Henry took part in an infant memory project at UK. I have no idea why I signed up for this...it sounded interesting back when I got the letter when I was on maternity leave..."Henry participating in research!!", "Our little science subject!!", "UK KNOWS he is a genius already!!" or something like that. So, I called and said we would happily participate. Well, our time came this past Monday and I must admit I was not so thrilled about the entire process once I realized I had to actually drive the baby to campus and sit through some random study where Henry watches TV. Still, he got a cute bib, I got to hold him and watch his adorable face on camera, he totally seemed like a genius baby, so all in all it wasn't too bad.

All that is not the point of the post. That is just explaining WHY I was on campus. I don't go to campus much anymore. I almost never try to find a parking spot on campus...so I had forgotten a very valuable life lesson I used to know well. The lesson? Don't ever. EVER. leave your car in a spot that says "this spot for graduate candidates only...monitored". Don't do it. Not even if you were driving by your husbands work and thought, "Oh man, I bet his co-workers would LOVE to see the baby! I will just dart on in for a second" not if you think, "these two spots are ALWAYS empty, there is no way they will check them in the ten minutes I will be inside..." because the sad truth is, they will check. Someone will be watching that spot, and they will call the tow truck. And you will look out the window to see your adorable trailblazer (with the car-seat in it) being towed away!

So, Nick took off running. He caught the guy. He explained that he worked here, that it is his wife, his new baby! "You can't take a car from a BABY!!" and I was like, "But the CAR-SEAT!! You can't tow my car with my car-seat in it!!" And the tow truck driver was all like, "well...once it's on the truck..." As if it was physically IMPOSSIBLE for him to give us the truck back. As if there was some golden rule that said it was FORBIDDEN to take a car down once it has been lifted into the tow position. And we begged and we pleaded, but they said no. The car was theirs.

So...anyway, we had to pay $111 to get our car back. Yes. ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN DOLLARS. And Nick had to ride with the tow truck driver to the other side of campus to pay the fine, then drive it all the way back to his work where I was waiting with Henry. I sat there with the baby, because you know, they had the car-seat! Seems dangerous to steal a baby's car-seat...that's all I'm saying. So, I really hope Henry enjoyed his little visit to see his Papa at UK. We wont be going back until he is an actual student with his very own parking pass.