I live pretty close to my new job and when travelling into work I have several options- I can walk, it takes about 40 minutes each way and is free; I can catch the ferry or bus, it takes about 30 minutes and costs $6.60 round trip; or I can drive which can take anywhere between 8 and 40 minutes(depending on traffic flow) and costs $3.00 to park all day. I enjoy the ferry and walking but as the weather is heating up, I am choosing the convenience of driving more and more.
When driving, there are two options for paying for parking. You are probably familiar with the options, cash or card. When I first started the job (I've now been there a touch over six months), I would count out $3 in coins out of my change basket, to deposit into the automated machine to enable me to park all day, without fear of receiving a fine. After about a week of this, I decided I'd had enough of my boyish fumblings with small change. I'd step up, try inserting my big boy credit card in the ticketing machine, and finally make a man of myself. I felt I was ready, I'd heard of my friends and work colleagues doing it, I had plenty of experience with the coins and I'd tentatively used my credit card for a few other transactions around the workplace.
I awoke early, had a cup of coffee, shaved(I had shaved for the initial job interview and was still in my 'cleen cut' phase of employment), showered, combed my hair and brushed my teeth. I made sure I was on time and got in to pick my park, not too close (I didn't want to seem too keen), but not too far away(I still wanted to show I was interested). I nervously stepped out, waited until the ticketing machine was alone and made my approach. My mouth was dry and my knees were a little weak. Whilst my shaky hand and sweating palms made it difficult to get my card out, after some fumbling I still managed it. Now the challenge of sliding my card into the slot, the machine was in no state to guide me in, I had to do it on my own. Slow and steady wins the race, this being my first time, I adhered to this old adage and eased my card into the slot. I peered nervously at the read out, watched in anticipation as the text changed from 'ready' to 'reading card'. In no time at all I was being asked to remove my card, no sooner had I done this then it told me to insert it again!
Thinking that this isn't how I heard it was supposed to go, but not wishing to disappoint, I re-inserted the card, looking for some sort of positive feedback, only to be asked to remove the card once more. This continued for what felt like hours, but I suspect was only about half a minute; in, out, in, out, feeling more and more flustered as other customers started arrive behind me, waiting to seek the services of the machine. Then finally to my dismay, after being asked one last time to remove my card I was told that it was unreadable, the transaction was never completed.
I swear it'd worked before, I had sufficient funds, I'd used it for personal transactions over the internet all the time and I was totally into buying parking tickets. However, even with the lady waiting behind reassuring me that this sort of thing happens to people all the time, I still felt the flushing shame rising over my face. I put my limp and useless card away into my wallet, mumbled my excuses to the crowd waiting behind me and wandered back to my car to scrounge some change.
Perhaps one day I'd be ready to step up into manhood, full of it's credit cards, cellular telephones, discotheques and electricity bills, but this was not that day.
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