The Parking Lot Apocalypse

Michigan was great. Better than I could have ever imagined. Every day we shared the most amazing experiences and I would sleep that night thinking that was the peak of the trip only to find more once-in-a-lifetime moments waiting for us the next day. The 6 hour trip home was bitter sweet. We hated to say goodbye, but it was time to get back and reunite with Z who had been with his grandparents. The car ride is smoother when attempted at night while the kids are asleep, so we didn't leave until the middle of the night and rolled into our apartment entrance in the early a.m. hours this morning before sunrise.

While discussing who was going to carry which sleeping child upstairs and when we would unpack all the luggage our planning was interrupted by a moment that felt like it belonged in an episode of the twilight zone. There was orange caution tape wrapped around our building and half of the street. I rubbed my groggy eyes wondering if I was actually awake. This place that we have come and gone for over a year now suddenly looked completely abandoned. There was no way to pull into our home. It was completely blocked off and the entire parking lot was empty. The sea of fresh tarmac covered the entire lot and there were no yellow lines painted yet to indicate spaces. Parking lots get repaved, sure, but no one told us this project was coming. No phone call, or newsletter, or email was sent out. The strangest part of all was that my car, my precious car that should have been idly sitting in it's space for the week having it's own vacation, was GONE!

You can imagine my confusion and frustration. I had some words to say. Now imagine my husbands response who is bigger, stronger, and gets more angry than he does upset. I tried to calm him down telling him we just needed to get some sleep before we react and do something irrational. There was no one to talk to at the time anyway since the offices were not yet open. We did find my car along with all the others in a different parking lot. It had been towed back behind our building a little further down the road. We just had to walk a little ways to get home and inside we found that they had also let themselves into our living quarters and onto the deck to remove all of our outside belongings and power wash the balcony. They left a letter explaining (to a degree) what had taken place on the porch. It was crazy I tell you. I felt ripped off and violated. I know we don't OWN the space that we live in, but we pay money to have temporary residency there and I think we have a right to know ahead of time when people are going to be traipsing through our stuff and moving our cars!

After a couple short hours of sleep, where I dreamt that there was a hostile takeover in our home I called the landlord and explained how our morning went. She assured me that the car was fine and it just needed to be moved before they paved the next lot and that I owed $60 for the towing expense. Yeah! Not only was this a huge inconvenience and disappointment in how they do business, but they were going to charge us extra for all the hassle. I told her that that was not our responsibility to pay and we did not know that we needed to move my car. Had we known we would have gladly made arrangements. She said that there was a note on the door a few days beforehand. I asked her how I was supposed to see the note if we were out of town. She mentioned that a lot of residents will notify the office that they are going out of town, and I told her that I would be sure to let her in on our personal schedule in the future, but for the time being I needed to know who to talk to in order to take care of our current situation. She told me that she would need to speak to her regional manager, but he was unavailable at the moment because he is *ahem* OUT OF TOWN! Yes. It is all as ridiculous as it sounds and worse, but I will hold back any further rambling for now.

I know it will all be okay. It's not what I wanted to come home to that's for sure, and it makes my already aching heart long for a place of our own that much more. My biggest prayer right now is that this would blow over quickly and not cause too much of a rift between us and the landlord. If you've ever rented you know the importance of being on good terms with the people in control. But, I am not a doormat either, and as I mentioned, we write a check every month on time, and I don't think it is too much to ask for some common courtesy as part of our agreement. On the bright side, at least my car wasn't stolen and we got back before they tried to tow it again, which can be damaging to the vehicle. Grrrr. I need to get some more sleep and maybe look through some of my Michigan photos and reminisce about better times when I was on the beach far from the evils of tow trucks and landlords. Those were the days.