Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Fair

When my brother and I were in high school we shared a car. When our cousin, Bing, was a freshman, we took him home from school. (I don't remember how he got to school, but I don't remember picking him up!) Bing has muscular dystrophy and we were given a handi-cap tag so that we could park right by the door for him. While it was nice for us to show up any ol' time in the morning and get the best spot in the lot, we didn't think much of it. And we never, ever used that handi-cap tag when we didn't have Bing. Not at the grocery store, not at Walmart, not even at the mall. Why? Because that's wrong. We were snotty teenagers and still we knew better.

I don't shop at Walmart anymore because it is destroying America. Whatever. But when I was in college, it was pretty much the only place in town. I remember one specific occasion when my roommate, D, and I were walking from our parking spot way out in the back and we saw a big, huge, black SUV swing into the parking space reserved for pregnant women. Yeah right, we said. I bet that person is sooo not pregnant. We were wrong. Not only was the woman very pregnant, but she had two toddlers. She deserves that spot close to the door, we said. That is the first time I ever noticed a spot reserved for pregnant women...and I never parked there...because that would be wrong.

Ok, about six months ago I parked in a space reserved for pregnant women. In my defense, I was the the Sprint campus (Sprint's world headquarters), I was running late, there were like 50 spots reserved for pregnant women, and I highly suspected that I was actually pregnant (which I was!). Even when I found out I was pregnant, I didn't park in these special spots for a long, long time even if they were free, which they usually are not. I wasn't all that pregnant and I figured someone more pregnant would better benefit from that coveted parking place.

Now, finally, things are starting to get a little uncomfortable for me. I know all you pregnancy veterans are saying, "You think this is bad? This is nothing! You still have 13 weeks to go!" Hush, I say. I'm uncomfortable and if that special parking place at Price Chopper is free with it's cute little white sign with a red stork, I'm damn well parking there. It's only fair. It's usually taken, though. I can't help but wonder if the person parked there is actually an expectant mother. But today it was free! Oh, happy day. As I was backing out of my super-close-to-the-door parking space, I noticed a car waiting. This car must have been waiting for a while because there were quite a few cars piled up behind it. Again I wondered if that person was actually pregnant. I cruised slowly down the next isle waiting to get a look at the driver. And you know what? It was a MAN!!

I'm telling you, I was MAD. If I hadn't had two boxes of ice cream bars I would have gone right after him and given him a piece of my mind. But alas. There's really no reason to ruin the ice cream. I paid good money for that ice cream. But the nerve! That pig! That absolute PIG!!