I’ve thrown in the towel. I’m tossing twenty on my Charlie Card and giving in. There’s no way am I driving to school ever again. I just bought a brand new Ford Taurus over the summer, so I was happy about not having to commute on the T this semester. At the end of last spring I didn’t have a car, so I was taking my chances on the Red Line every morning. I forgot what it was like driving here. I honestly couldn’t have imagined it getting worse but, yeah, it has.

I feel guilty getting mad about it. I know there’s a war going on and other more pressing issues (like, uh, if Britney’s getting joint custody) but I can’t take it lying down. I am fed up with it already, and we’re only two weeks into the semester. The gravel pit they gave us for a few extra spaces is not the answer I was looking for. I’ll ride to school on a donkey if I have to! But forget your gravel, punks.

Picking up the first issue of The Mass Media I was hoping to be filled in on some details, but there was only a small reference. I’ve repeatedly made inquiries into when and if it will ever go back to the old days when tunnels weren’t collapsing and I didn’t have to leave my house 40 minutes early just to find that magic, elusive spot that seems to always slip away. No one will give me the straight answer that I’m looking for, which seems to be harder to find than that magic spot.

I grunted and groaned my way through last year, lucky that the officers I verbally abused on a daily basis didn’t arrest me, drove like a maniac, bobbing and weaving as I went, refusing to let another student beat me to “my spot”, driving and acting like a big jerk. It’s society’s fault, man.

But if you haven’t caught my drift (and I’ve been laying it on like asphalt) this parking “situation” needs to be remedied, and not next March.

I will say this though: one nice thing is that if you are one of the lucky ones to snag a spot, the people around you getting out of their cars are just as aggravated, and you have something to gripe together about on that long walk to class. Especially if you parked in

Lot Q over by the water, it gives you a chance to get to know someone you otherwise probably wouldn’t ever have had a conversation with. And isn’t that nice?

I still say, fix the damn problem. If I need to start up an otherwise unwarranted conversation, I’ll just start bumming smokes again.