STS (Small Town Syndrome)

My darling friend, co-worker, and part-time fiance, Leigh Carnes (Cares with an 'N')is from small town Utah. Gunnison to be exact. To my best knowledge, the cow to human ratio is roughly 1000 to 1. Need I say more?



So it's arguable that the following account of events is by no means of any personal fault to Leigh. Growing up in the forgotten desert of Utah with just a single paved road (approximately) I can't imagine they have such advanced technology as parking meters. So when Leigh and I decided to make a quick food run for all of us starving girls at the office, parking meter mishap was all I could expect from a poor little girl suffering from STS (Small Town Syndrome).



Upon pulling into the side street parking stall she hit the curb and accidentally honked her horn. Thus drawing unnecessary attention to us. After digging in her purse for change for the meter, she proceeded to put money into the wrong side of the meter. Paying for the empty parking stall next to us. Then I hear an exasperated sound of frustration as she storms away from the meter exclaiming,

"That stupid meter only gave me 6 minutes! And I wasted 27 cents on it!"

'You put pennies in the parking meter?!'

"yea, why?"

I then took liberty of explaining to her that first of all, you don't put pennies in the parking meter, secondly, it was the wrong side of the meter so she just gave her money to the empty stall next to her car, and anyways, it's after 6 o'clock...So there was no need to even attempt buying time on the meter. Poor Leigh...At least she realized she was driving down the wrong side of the road in enough time to avoid being hit when we were leaving.