Car Woes... Big City Initiation

Well, I've been very fortunate thus far in my adventures in CO, and haven't had any major run-ins with law enforcement or other scary folks like that.

Until last week.

And last week was a doozy.

I commute (and hate it).  This is no secret.  Every day, I leave an hour before my first class in order to brave traffic, find a parking spot, and walk the quarter mile or so to get to class on time.  Every day, I park on 18th street, and every day I have no problems.  

I did the usual last Wednesday, but when I went to my car in the afternoon, it wasn't there.  I was on the phone with my mom, and was secretly freaking out, but didn't want her to know, just in case I was freaking out for no reason.  

I wasn't freaking out for no reason.  After some research involving several phone calls and internet searches, I found my car at a local towing place  I had (apparently) parked right in front of someone's driveway.  Now, why or how I could possibly have done that, I don't know.  But there are apparently pictures to prove it.  I don't know if I turned my brain off completely, or if I just am dumb, or what happened, but it happened.  

After locating my car, I had to go to the Boulder PD to get a release.  From there, I had to go to the place to get my car.  $108 later, I was driving away, (un)happy as a clam.

Then, to top things off, on Saturday night, I drove to Boulder for my friend Jackie's senior recital.  It was snowy and I was running a little late, so I was in a hurry.  After arriving in Boulder, I came across a stoplight.  It turned yellow, and I tried to slow down, but failed miserably on the snow-packed, icy roads.  When I finally stopped, I was over halfway through the intersection and the light turned red.  Then, I saw the camera on the stoplight take a picture of my car.

Needless to say, I was not pleased.  It was most definitely not my fault.  At all.  I don't know how exactly they'll get my ticket to me, but I plan to be preemptive and head over to the PD this week to see the process and defend my case.

All of this sucks.  A lot.  I'm trying to view it as a way of welcoming tme to city life.  

I'd rather not have been initiated.

The Long Commute

For my seventh birthday, my parents bought me the Laura Ingalls Wilder book series.  I don't know what possessed them to do such a thing, but I could never put them down.  I can't even count how many times I read them when I was young.  I was so obsessed that I made my family go to their homestead museum in De Smet, SD during a family vacation.  They hated every minute.  I loved it.

After Thanksgiving, I was talking with my pianist, and she had said that she had read one, "The Long Winter," while she was home during Thanksgiving break.  I thought to myself, "What a fantastic idea," and decided to read the series while I was home for Christmas.  Between drinking, knitting, drinking, puzzles, drinking, and drinking, I didn't really have time to read a whole lot.  However, I brought the books that I didn't finish with me to CO so that I would have some entertaining reading for my life.

I just finished "The Long Winter."

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That story has absolutely nothing to do with this blog topic, other than that I stole the name of the book for my blog title.  Ha!  I make myself laugh sometimes...

Some know and some don't that I was kicked out of my apartment in Boulder at the end of December.  They didn't really have any good reason for kicking me out other than that they didn't want me there, but I left without a fight.  Luckily, at about the time I was getting kicked out, Kenny's ex-boyfriend was moving out of their condo in Broomfield.  Broomfield is a suburb of Denver, approximately 15 miles from Boulder.

Fifteen miles is not that far.  At least, not by ND standards, where cruising speed is 68 on a 65, and highways are void of things like traffic, potholes, car accidents, and stoplights.  Yes, stoplights.  I'm not kidding you when I say that highways here in CO have stoplights in the middle of nowhere.  There is nothing more annoying.

The road that I take to Boulder doesn't have stoplights, but it does have traffic.  Let me tell you: it has traffic.  Sometimes it takes me 45 minutes to go those 15 miles.  And that's on a clear day.  I haven't experienced snow/ice yet, but Kenny tells me it's even worse on those days.  Ew.  Now, I could take the bus, but I can't park for free at the park and ride because I have ND plates, and it takes even longer to get to Boulder by bus.

Because it now takes me more than 7 minutes to walk to class every morning, I have to get up that much earlier in order to get to class on time.  I have class at 8:00 am twice a week and at 9:00 am twice a week.  That equals getting up at 6:00 and 7:00 at the latest.  If you know me, you know that mornings and I are not friends.  Not even close to friends, so that is less than ideal. 

After fighting traffic to arrive in Boulder, I have to find parking.  Because I have class so early, it's generally not too difficult for me to find free, off-campus parking, but it's not too convenient, either.  It's just a hassle.

Let's not even talk about how stinky it is not to be able to go home in the middle of the day to take a shower, or a nap, or to eat dinner.  Most days, I bring lunch and supper with me. There hasn't been a day yet that I haven't spent more than 12 hours in Boulder.  But it's not worth coming home in the middle of the day, and especially not during rush hour traffic.

The current condo is cheaper than the old one per month, but we have to pay utilities and I have to pay for gas for commuting.  Blech. 

Now, there are positives to the new place.  My room is much bigger, I have a bathroom all to myself, there's a piano at home.  Oh, and of course, I have a fantastic roommate who entertains me daily.  Next year, we'll be living the high life in Boulder.

No, not that high life.

public transportation

Boulder's public transportation system is amazing.  Not just by my standards, because I don't have enough knowledge and experience with public transportation to be able to judge fairly. 

People here are known for their environmental conscientiousness, and partly because of that, they ride buses.  In addition, parking in Boulder, particularly near campus, is atrocious.  There are 29,000 students here, and there isn't enough parking nearby for all of the commuters.  

In addition to a local bus system in the city of Boulder whose names are fun (Hop, Skip, Dash, etc.), there's a system that runs the whole Denver metro area, and its routes include Boulder.  The are buses that run specifically to take people to and from Broncos and Rockies games, etc.  The system rocks. 

It is NOT cheap to park on campus, so I refused to buy an on-campus parking permit.  Luckily, I live near the edge of campus, and it's easy for me to park off-campus and then walk the half mile or so to my apartment in the dorm.  But sometimes it's difficult to find a parking spot in the area where I want to park because it is so close to campus, and lots of people want to park there. When I find a spot, I don't want to move my car just for the fun of it. 

If I haven't driven my car in a week or so, I go to wherever it's parked to check to see if it's still there.  And if it is still there, I have to make sure that's it's okay: no parking tickets, no windows smashed in, etc.  It's actually a pretty safe neighborhood (if you exclude the fact that JonBenet Ramsey was killed less than a mile from where I live, and about 4 blocks from where I park). 

Back to the subject at hand...
Rather than drive my car everywhere, which requires giving up my parking spot, I take public transportation.  Before last week, I'd never taken public transportation alone in my life.  A few weeks ago, I spent a good 2 hours researching the bus system and its routes, and found the best way to the post office to open a mailbox.  It took some nerve, but I finally convinced myself to actually do it.  It wasn't (that) hard, and everything turned out well.

I've taken public transportation twice since then, and have had no problems.  I'm learning little things each time.  If you want to stop, you have to pull the string so the bus driver knows to stop at your stop.  Have your pass ready when you get to the door.  Little things like that.

What I'm curious to know is if there is bus/public transportation etiquette that may not be so obvious.  If so, please tell me now so that I don't feel like an ignorant bus rider!!!

And, in case you're wondering, my post office box's number is 6110, and the zip code is 80306.  For you slower ones, that means that I welcome postcards, cards, gifts, etc., etc., etc. at the address listed below.  But you should probably tell me if you send me something, because I definitely don't plan on riding the bus for an hour every day just to get my mail (even though it's not that bad).

Raissa Johnson
PO Box 6110
Boulder, CO  80306-6110