This is payback for those ten years of feeling smug about not having to deal with parking in LA.

I'm pissed. No, that doesn't cover it. I'm FURIOUS!  Here's the story:  I got a hankering for something sweet last night around 7pm and headed out to 7-11.  As it was dark and my neighborhood isn't the best, I decided to drive. I got in the car, looked up and saw  a parking ticket on my windshield.  What?  Dude, why did I get a ticket?  I have a permit. I'm not parked in a driveway. It's not street cleaning day. Why?  I looked at the ticket and it said "Preferential Parking," which is silly because I have a parking permit, it's right there, see?  

That's me, all slack jawed, because someone stole* the parking sticker off the back of my car!!  Stole it! Right. Off. My. Car!  Now, the sticker is useless to them because even if they DID manage to get it to stick back on a car and look like new, not stolen and reapplied, the sticker has my plate number on it.  Of course, that is only a problem if the parking enforcement person actually compares the sticker to the plates.  I'm doubting their diligence as I have seen cars with other districts parking permits not get tickets and also because the ticket I have in my possession says my car was parked on Leland Way when it was actually parked on DeLongpre (a parallel street).  

So, now, I'll be spending my lunch hour at the parking office trying to reason with them about not getting this ticket, and paying for a replacement sticker, which I will affix with superglue and then score like folks do with their registration stickers.  Why does this shit always happen when I can't afford it?  Balls!!!

*I say it's stolen because in six years of car ownership and parking on this street through all kinds of weather and countless car washes, I have never had a sticker just fall off.