One way lanes in parking lots exist for one reason alone:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

To drive people completely insane.

Say you are driving into the parking lot of your favorite store. You see a perfect parking spot close to the entrance. You approach it, only to see one thing:

The dreaded arrow, pointing in the opposite direction, of course.

From that point on, it's a mad rush to the next lane where you can turn into. Naturally, that lane will have no empty spaces, so you are forced to drive all the way to Outer Mongolia to do a U-turn back into the lane where you had originally seen the empty space.

By the time you reach the sacred parking space, you find that it has already been long occupied by some schlub who was lucky enough to come in the opposite direction and sweep it away, despite the fact you've been driving in the parking lot twice as long as him or her.

Whose idea was it to invent one-way lanes in parking lots? Because there's a grave I'd love to piss on.

[In_The_Wind]

1. One way lanes in parking lots are merely suggestions to moi.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. I don't necessarily condone such behavior.

But I damn well understand it!

[In_The_Wind]

3. I don't make a habit of it. I'm not rude. I am old.

I do things my way without hurting anyone.
If anyone has a problem with me too bad.

[petronius]

4. All those lines and arrows actually mean something?

I did not know that...

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Well I suppose....

-----> Could mean, "The store is this way"

and

<---- Could mean, "The road is that way."

But I could be wrong.

[talkingmime]

6. The Harrisburg, PA PennDOT has one-way lanes. You use the back lane to exit.

Nobody does. To hell with the arrows. Everybody takes the easy path to the exit (including me).

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. Quite ironic indeed.

Harrisburg, huh?

That place brings back a flood of emotions and memories to me for personal reasons. Bittersweet.

[talkingmime]

8. Just went right through the middle of the city an hour and a half ago.

I love it here. There are backups on our "beltway", if you can call it that, and yet you can still go through the middle of the city, right past the capital building, and never have more than two or three cars ahead of you at a light. It's beautiful.

Yes, there's a lot of crime, murders, the city is bankrupt (Republicans did that by the way), and there are a few potholes here and there, but it's a wonderful place. We have our own baseball team (Senators) and all kinds of festivals and events. They often do fireworks after the baseball games. We can see them from our back yard.

Old Shakey still functions as a walking bridge from City Island to the East Shore and there's plenty of parking. I've never lived anywhere that could touch it for convenience and accessability. The west side was knocked out by ice on the Susquehanna in 1998 or so. It took out two spans.

I've been here about 12 or 13 years (not quite sure, probably 13). I doubt I'll move again ever again. I'm on the West Shore but I love the city. The architecture is amazing. I just like walking the streets and looking around. Parts of it are modern, but mostly it is trapped in time and has more character than any of the contemporary buildings. There are brick sidewalks everywhere. They closed down the entrance to Harrisburg Hospital on 1st St. to redo a brick sidewalk (it's not the emergency entrance, that's off of Market St.)

I don't know why, but I just fell in love with the city when I saw it. I like Baltimore, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Charlotte, and Allentown for similar reasons, but I really don't want to live in any of them. San Diego is sort of cool too, but I didn't see much of the actual city. Tampa didn't impress me. Neither did Dallas.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. My first love was from Harrisburg.

And, like most person's first loves, you never really get over that.

So there's an immediate assocation with her and Harrisburg that gives me pause whenever I think about it.

Plus, there was/is a local donut chain there called Maple Donuts, which serves--predictably--maple frosted donuts. Ever since that, the maple frosted donut has always been my favorite, simply due to its association.

Jeez, I'm getting sentimental just thinking about it now.

[talkingmime]

10. There's a Maple Donuts in Yocumtown, 83S out of Harrisburg near the turnpike exit.

I think I just located my first love. The phone number I got is disconnected but the address and previous names and locations all match her exactly. I haven't seen her since 86 or so (my wife bathed her two very young kids while they were running away from an abusive husband - we committed a felony that's past statute of limitations). I gave her and her boyfriend a place to sleep and food, gave her all of the money I had in the house, and sent them on their way with my blessing.

I guess I'm going to have to send her snail mail. Her current husband's name gives the same address in the searches - all public records, mind you. Nothing insidious. She's a sister to me now. I just want to see her again and give her a hug. She doesn't live all that far away from me.

You never stop loving someone. You can hate their fucking guts but you still love them. She and I never stopped being friends. Long-distance relationships are hard when you are 16 and 14 respectively. I had to move to another town. Before I met my wife, I tried to get her to leave her abusive husband and marry me. Apparently it took someone else. My wife knows the entire history and understands.

Well, to be completely honest, my first "love" was Katie in Kindergarten. We both had reversable "spy" jackets. I have no idea what became of her and I'm still coming up empty on searches.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. That's the one!

As to my first love, we were doomed from the start, due to the fact that she lived several hours away from me. (I had met her over the summer when she vacationed in my area) But for about a space of a year, we would talk just about every day on the phone for hours upon end. And we would write letters back and forth--this was just before email and social media and texting became popular, so we are talking handwritten letters. And I just remember my heart jumping every time I'd see a letter addressed to me in my mailbox. Funny how antiquated it seems now, but it wasn't all that long ago.

She did go to prom with me, and that's something I'll always treasure. After that, things slowed down based upon the sad realization for me that the distance factor was just not going to make it happen. It flared up again briefly several years later when she seemed to send signals to me that there might be an opening for me. I took a trip up to your fair city, and needless to say, my heart was broken with disappointment based on my false hope. It was a long trip home from Harrisburg that afternoon.

After that, it was just too heartbreaking for me to try to keep in regular contact with her, I needed to move on with my life, so I stopped all contact, got married, had kids, etc. A couple of years ago, she popped up briefly on Facebook, we had an nice, quick amiable exchange, and then she disappeared from the Facebook scene soon thereafter.

I actually do know where she currently works--for a municipality in your area--but not wanting to appear stalkerish and given the fact I'm a married man with kids, I've intentionally given her her space. Oh well. If--hypothetically of course--my marriage were ever to go down the tubes, maybe I'll reach out, but right now I can't be focusing on such things. Wouldn't be prudent.

Oh, and yes, for my first "love", i.e. the girl I had a crush on in 4th grade, I'm Facebook friends with her, she still lives in the area I grew up, and she married a guy named Cletus. Seriously, a guy named Cletus. I didn't know there were people with that name in real life. But she's very nice and fun to reminisce with.

[talkingmime]

12. "Cletus" - LOL! "Cletus"? I met my wife in '84 and spent the first 18 months long-distance.

Who the FUCK would name a guy "Cletus"? That's just wrong on multiple levels.

I think it actually strengthened our relationship to live apart. I had two different female room-mates during that time (first year of college). One was the girlfriend I had who introduced me to my wife. The other was a random "room available" response and she lived off of salad and blue cheese. We didn't get along all that well. My wife had a male room-mate in South Carolina (her first teaching job).

We trusted each other. Both room-mate situations were simple opportunities to share expenses. It worked in that capacity.

She moved in with me for the following semester and we had ANOTHER female room-mate for the entire year. She had an evil cat named Pywacket (a witches familiar from some book). We married in '87 and are still happily married. Two of my girlfriends from before I met her (dated both of them at the same time and they knew it) are facebook friends with me now.

After you're with someone long enough, those old romances just become friendships, not threats. Just tell you're wife you want to look for her and see what she's up to. One of those two girls finally accepted that she was gay and is now a professional clown. The other is married with kids. We had good times together, but eventually you have to move on and both are facebook friends with my wife.

There's nothing wrong with reuniting with old romances as long as it isn't romantic anymore. I think of them as sisters. We have to stick together to survive. Romantic love can easily become platonic and the rewards of learning about someone you were close to far outweigh the risks, at least as long as you aren't interested in cheating on your spouse. I'm not and never have been.