Lacking hindsight, what say you?

I have heard the condescending arguments about how women can’t drive or park, mostly from men who cast aspersions on women. Not that I condone them (arguments or men), but I do have a confession to make.

In the six years that I have been driving in the US, I have never (ever) gotten a ticket. Never been pulled over for speeding, running red lights or any other offence. Now, why am I mentioning this? I do have a point. Make that two points, actually.

First, I do have violation tickets: from the esteemed and diligent security guards of my employers, who had thought (twice!) that I have parked crookedly. Thus, they left a ticket on my windshield stating “Incorrect-Parking Violation”. Now, that paper is not much- I don’t have any fines or fees. I simply read, huff and toss.

Apparently, I cannot park correctly.

I, who have never been reprimanded by the cops, got ticket from guards! (Now, there is slight thread of egoistical insanity in that sentence, along with some form of grammatical error. Both of which I’m going to assiduously ignore since I do not want to digress).

Which brings me to the second item. I have been in two accidents (why, thank you for asking! No, I was not hurt). I think I may be misleading you with the word ‘accident’, which indicates that at least two cars were involved. Both of mine occurred when there were no other cars in the vicinity. Yes, I did it all by myself, no outside assistance needed. They were accidents in the sense that I had no intention of damaging my car, but I did.

Both the times, curiously enough, I was driving barely 2-3 miles an hour. I was crawling in reverse gear, pulling out of the parking spot. The first time I misjudged the distance and bumped into a monster truck, wrenching the bender; second time I grazed against a pillar and broke the side mirror. Since all this was happening, as I said earlier, at 2-3 miles/hr, I could clearly hear every bump, grind, crunch and screech. Curiously still, it was my husband’s car that was victimized twice by my… err, driving expertise.

And apparently, I do not drive well in reverse gear, in spite of diligently checking my mirrors.

Lacking hindsight, what say you?

PS: My car did get towed, for no fault of mine, which is a separate issue altogether. Please read "A Full Circle, where cops become buddies" in Apr 2010. I have new version of blogger, and once I figureout how to insert hyperlinks, I will do so. Until then...