In stories, when a character has done something wrong or displays a glaring personality flaw, there's generally a direct price that is played at some point in the story, usually soon thereafter. In life, there are relatively few times when the lesson or moral to the story of your wrongful actions is quite so clear. No, usually, we get away with being generally lazy, cruel, entitled, or plain old wrong for far too long before that karmic pendulum swings back in our direction… sometimes, we may e…

There's something startling about being accused of slighting someone and doing them wrong—especially when you don't even have any idea what they're talking about. Maybe it's the actual confrontation itself; maybe it's just your mind trying to make sense of it all, but usually, you're going to find yourself caught too off guard to formulate a proper response to the events that are unfolding in front of you.

If you've ever had a car, then you know that finding a parking spot can be the bane of your existence. But there's good and bad ways to go about finding a spot. The good way is, if you can't find one then you simply leave the lot and find parking elsewhere. Super easy and devoid of conflict! The bad way is, you physically run into the spot in order to save it. This is exactly what happened to OP when he pulled halfway into a spot and a wild Karen appears out of nowhere to try and hold it with h…

Why is it so hard for people to just read a sign and follow what it says? I agree, some signs can be really confusing. I once spent 15 minutes in front of a frustratingly unclear sign that was supposed to tell me whether or not I could park my car in that spot. Eventually, after consulting with some passersby, I decided it was not worth the potential parking ticket, and continued to look for a different parking spot for another 15 minutes. Even so, if there is a sign that says “Private Parking”…

What is it about perceived petty slights, such as another driver cutting us off in traffic, that drive us into such a rage? Instances that, if we chose instead not to react, would go by completely inconsequentially and unnoticed by us. Usually, the idea of face-to-face confrontation alone will cause those who would otherwise want to take issue with another's behavior to quail. But while seated in a car, that thin layer of anonymity and safety provided to us by our steel box with glass windows e…

Humans have long waged war over finite resources—like toilet paper and parking spaces—willing to come to blows over a rectangle of processed paper or a rectangle of asphalt that's marginally closer to a store entrance than that other rectangle area of asphalt at the back of the lot. Yeah, we're just kind of wired that way—monkeys feuding over territory and resources. At the first sign that we might miss out on something due to its limited availability, we're compelled by the overwhelming desire…

Big, packed parking lots are my nightmare. Trying to maneuver my small car in between angry drivers who I believe are out to get me is one of my least favorite things to do in the world. If you own a car, you don't really have a choice… You just have to accept your fate. This person was going Christmas shopping in Philly when they encountered a parking lot Karen who had carefully surveilled the situation before her. OP had their blinker on, and was waiting patiently for another driver to vacate…

Many times in life we can engage in situations that can test our patience. We can have the purest of intentions, but when pushed past our limits, there is no stopping the fury and rage from running through our veins. So, when being tested, should we back down and surrender, or on the contrary, should we put on the fight of a lifetime? The story below is an account of a creative couple who made the decision to put on the fight of a lifetime. The couple refuses to give in to their outrageous neig…

Some people believe that the truth is determined by the context, however, sometimes the truth remains the same regardless of the situation. There is a right and a wrong in real life, and it is impossible to confuse the two. The story below describes the encounter between two individuals. The first is OP and the second would be an arrogant parker who mistakenly believes herself to be entitled to OP's private property. However, rather than succumbing to the nasty habits of the entitled parker, OP…

Going through all the clauses in a lease is one of my least favorite things to do in the world. The dull feel of the paper, the tiny writing, the boring yet difficult-to-read legal stuff… It's too much for me. That is why I always get one of my friends in the legal field to check the documents I sign before I sign them. This young tenant did not bother to read certain clauses in her lease, but it all turned out okay in the end because once she did pay attention, she knew what she had to do. It…

It's an important lesson to learn early in life that the things that aren't yours—well, they aren't—and you have not a single darn right to them. Should you choose to help yourself to those things anyway, you'll soon find there are consequences, and these only get worse as you get older. If you help yourself to a candy bar at the grocery store, you'll be in for the humiliation of your young life when your parent makes you go back and tell the cashier what you've done but when you're a fully gro…

In life, it's not worth worrying about the little things, especially when there are much bigger things to worry about… Yet, each neighborhood somehow manages to have that one neighbor who has nothing important to worry about and spends their days obsessing over petty details and perceived slights, plotting about how they're going to hold their neighbors accountable for that single blade of grass that went unmowed, or that leaf that blew over the property line that one time three summers ago.

When you come home to find a strange car parked in your driveway or assigned parking space, there really isn't much more to be done than to go through the proper procedure for having that car ticketed and towed. Of course, if you're feeling generous and know your neighbor owns the car, it might be the neighborly thing to do to give them a heads-up or a reminder that they've parked in your space. You never know. There could be some kind of emergency going on, like they could have really needed t…

Justice is served

There's something inherently unbalanced about one person or a for-profit organization having (relatively) unchecked control over whether or not someone has a roof over their head. Even after having direct control over how often the tenant has to move, they can also directly influence the tenant's success in finding a new home when forced to—thanks to the “all-important” tenant referral system that is pivotal in determining whether or not other landlords will rent to them. Should the tenant have…

Parking cartels usually utilize a clever mix of feigned incompetence, actual incompetence, and diffused and dispersed responsibility in their organizations to ensure that no one ever has any idea what's actually going on or what their job is. So, when ticketed people come to dispute their tickets, they never really get anywhere because it's apparently nobody's actual job to help them with their dispute.