free parking

free parking

Welp, I should probably tell the sticker story. I debated whether or not I should put it on here for the world to see because I don't want to drag names through the mud, but I think I want people to hear it anyway.

Yesterday after physical therapy, I went straight to a class in HHH. As usual, there was nowhere to park because there are like 0.0003 handicap parking spots per handicapped person (I made that up but it's probably true). In a fit of desperation, I parked in the lot for the ecumenical religious center, despite the signs that say it's not a university lot. I figured that a handicap spot is a handicap spot, right? In any case, my only options were to park there or skip my class because UWEC's handicap accomodations are woefully inadequate. I figured I might get a ticket or a warning or something, but my car was only going to be there for about an hour.

I came out to my car an hour later and saw something yellow on it. As I got closer, I noticed it was a big fucking sticker on my door that said something about how I shouldn't have parked there, and written on it was some snarky note telling me to not park there ever again. I tried to take the sticker off and only the corners would come off.

Great. I just got this car three days ago and now there's this shit all over it. I met my mom for lunch right afterwards and showed it to her, and she was pissed. She vowed to find whoever did it and give them a piece of her mind.

As it turns out, it was the fucking MINISTER who did it.

First of all: WHAT THE FUCK???????????????????????????????

Secondly: a simple note would have sufficed, he didn't need to vandalize my car.

Well, my mom went in to talk to the guy, and I guess he was a real jerk about it. Apparently he even told my mom that students often steal their grandparents' handicap tags and he figured I'd done that (obviously he didn't see me limp away from my car). You'd think, of all the people in the world, a fucking minister would understand that I was in a horrible accident and now I can't walk very far. He's a man of god - what happened to compassion, and forgiveness, and being non-judgemental? If all else fails, like I said, at least he could have LEFT A NOTE instead of being such an asshole.

My mom came over to help me get the stupid thing off, but we couldn't remove the adhesive even by using rubbing alcohol and scraping at it. We ended up taking it in to a body shop and they had to use some special cleaner on it. The sticker was clearly made for use on a window, not on paint. I told my mom I was going to go in and talk to the minister, but she said she would write an email and so I should leave it up to her.

My mom wrote an email that night and he replied this morning. Surprisingly, he offered to "work something out" if I continue to have problems parking on campus, but I'd rather skip class due to lack of parking spots than deal with him again. He kind of apologized in the email but still was pretty much a jerk. He just didn't seem to understand that one should never, for any reason, put a sticker on the paint of someone else's car.

Anyway, I was really upset by the whole situation. I couldn't believe someone could be such a jerk. I decided to post this story on my blog because it raises a lot of issues. First of all, as I've said, our campus doesn't have nearly enough handicap parking spots. I should mention, though, that the university has a van that drives handicapped people around between classes. I haven't used it yet because I'd rather drive myself to class on my own schedule, but it's nice to know that service is available. Ideally I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not I can find a parking spot. I have a meeting set up with a student senator who is on the committee that deals with parking issues and accessibility, so we'll see what comes out of that. It would be nice if, in the future, people who find themselves in similar situations won't have to worry about parking.

Another aspect that makes this story outrageous is the fact that I'm handicapped. It's not like I was just too lazy to find a spot in a university lot, and so I dumped my car in the religious center lot so I wouldn't have to walk farther and be late for class. I physically can't walk very far. It takes all of my energy to walk from my car to class.

Some days the lack of handicap accessibility on our campus makes me want to go home and cry instead of going to class and dealing with the frustration and humiliation. When I was in the wheelchair, I felt like that pretty much any time I went to a class that wasn't in the fine arts building. Yesterday I felt like that again. I'm starting to feel like that more often again when people don't understand what I'm going through. Last week I didn't do an assignment for my physics class because I was too exhausted and sick because I was going through withdrawal. I asked the professor if it was okay to turn the assignment in late, and he told me he doesn't accept late work. Last week I also had to cancel my weekly appointment with my research advisor for the same reason, and I can tell he's starting to get impatient with me. I feel like people are starting to hold me to higher standards because I'm starting to look pretty much normal again, but what they don't understand is that I'm still in a lot of pain and I'm exhausted. I still need a lot of help, but I know part of it is my own fault - I'm bad at asking for help. But I didn't really want to give my life story to my physics prof just so he'd accept my late assignment. When I was bed-ridden, all I wanted was to be able to look and act "normal" again. Now that I'm almost to that point, people are assuming I am normal again. I don't know if I did a very good job putting all that into words, but whatever. You probably get what I mean.