So It Was Like This…

I didn’t mean to break the law… I really didn’t.

I was 15 months pregnant with FC.

Okay, I was 8.5 months along, but it felt like 15 months.  It was my second to last day on the job before I was to go on Maternity leave. I was pretty excited about that, believe me.  I had grand plans that consisted of sleeping, followed by more sleeping, followed by watching soap operas and eating bon-bon’s, and sleeping some more.

I was working for a subcontractor to the State of Ohio.  My job was to install and maintain the computer equipment used to conduct Food Stamp purchases in grocery stores and carry outs.  And I rocked at my job. It took me into many of the same neighborhoods that I found myself in working EMS.  In many ways it prepared me for my (as yet unknown) upcoming career change.

I was toned out… Er… Paged out for a call at a VERY inner city convenience store/carry-out/corner store for a broken printer.  The equivalent of most of the routine dialysis runs we get.  Most of the time it’s in and out… Sometimes… It’s not.

As I’m approaching the carry-out/convenience store/corner store (sorry, I realize there’s significantly less humor involved when it’s not in reference to an actual emergency or EMS post…), I notice that there’s a rather large group of men gathered at the corner directly across the street from the store I’m about to waddle into.  And I’m an intersection  away from one of the less than attractive public housing complexes (The projects)  in Toledo.  Music is blasting from a radio in a car parked nearby.  The Guys are talking loudly.

I instantly rub my very pregnant belly protectively.  The truth is… I’m a little nervous even though I had been raised in the same neighborhood.  I probably went to school with half of the guys who now scare the hell out of me.

I pull as close to the building as I can get. And at the same time, the group of young men I had been leery of ran directly in to the store I was to be entering in a scant few minutes.  As if on cue, a police car pulls up to the corner I’m parked at.

It was like they had radar.

I didn’t realize that I was pulling in to a bus zone.  As in… NO, you can’t park here.  Not even if you’re VERY pregnant and afraid for your silly little life.

I exited my craptastic vehicle and gathered the supplies I would need.  A new printer and cables… and walked confidently into the corner store.

Because the Law was there.

Surely I was safe.  Right?  I waddled into the store and found it… well… overcrowded.

It was New Years Eve, nine years ago.  Shortly before the incident I wrote about last night where I puked in my mouth a little :)  Clearly it wasn’t the best day for me.

The fifteen or so extra customers in the already cramped store were situated towards the rear.  I went directly to the counter where the register (and my broken equipment) was located.  My hands shook as I simultaneously replaced the broken printer and kept an eye on the group at the rear of the store.

“Scene safety” was not a phrase in my vocabulary yet.  I just wanted to know where the TPD was.  Surely they saw the large group sprint towards the store.

Within seconds six Police Officers entered the building.  About that time all hell broke loose.

Well, to my novice backside, anyway. Okay, fine, so it was a box of Froot Loops that might have flown through the air.

In the end, four of them were arrested.  And I had five more gray hairs.

When I finally left, I found out what it was that delayed Toledo’s Finest from entering the store.

They wrote me a ticket.

For parking in a Bus Zone.