parking is such a pain.  looking for parking can be daunting - the good spaces
are always taken and the competition for available spaces is fierce.  i seemingly always arrive too late, when all the best spaces are gone.  and when good spaces do open up, i'm too slow to react.  aggression is often rewarded, even if it might lead to an accident or altercation now and then.  unfortunately, i'm conflict-averse.

then there are always the tactics of following people back to their cars or just staying in one place and waiting for that space to open up.  but i lack the patience or desire to allow such ploys to work.  persistence just isn't my style; if something isn't available, i just move on.  my thinking is that there are always some open spaces somewhere.

of course, i can't waste all my time just circling around forever.  how much time should i spend looking for a suitable parking space?  is it worth it to use those extra minutes to find a better space, even when there's no guarantee a good space will open up?  or should i settle for a distant space, understanding that time is limited and any space is better that none?  yes, the distant space is less appealing...but waste more time and even that space may be gone.  worse yet, take too much time and there might be no spaces left altogether. 

if i'm looking for parking, it's usually for a reason - to get somewhere to do something.  so in that respect, a lot of spaces can serve that purpose, even ones that might not seem like ideal spots.  but for whatever reason, i'm very short-sighted; i always think i can find that perfect parking spot (whatever that means).   needless to say i spend a lot of time driving aimlessly about.

if i were stranded on a deserted island with a high-speed internet connection and could only choose three websites to have access to (a common dilemna), no doubt i would pick google, yahoo, and craigslist.  although i peruse billions of other sites on an hourly basis, those three alone could adequately provide online sustenance for someone who pretty much lives and breathes on the internet.  

i'm not going talk about google and yahoo (for now), but i was reminded by craigslist of how useful these websites are for accomplishing simple daily activities.  on its website, craigslist describes itself as trying to be 'a trustworthy, efficient, relatively non-commercial place for folks to find all the basics in their local area.'  i'm sure we've all used craigslist for apartment rentals, but the site has become an expansive community where pretty much any service or need can be provided in some form.  you can find a place to live, a place to work, even a person to date...all of life's 'basic' necessities.

my reminder came this past thursday when i used the rideshare section of the site to catch a ride down to los angeles.  needless to say i'm putting the 'trustworthy' part of the craigslist vision to the test.  any time i mention to people that i hitched a ride off of craigslist, they think i'm nuts.  but it makes perfect sense - how many people make the drive by themselves between san francisco and los angeles every weekend, spending hundreds of dollars in gas yet always leaving unoccupied seats in a car?  by using a rideshare, you save gas money, you conserve energy if you're not driving, you can take advantage of any car pool lanes, you're helping the environment with less traffic, you even have company for some conversation if you so choose.  in being true to the craigslist premise of helping our fellow neighbor, the rideshare concept exemplifies, in an ideal world, a sensible approach to being practical and efficient.  

of course, we live in a selfish and paranoid world where it's risky and possibly dangerous to put complete trust in a stranger.  but this idealism is part of what makes craigslist so wonderful - the evolution of craigslist's community has allowed the internet to connect people, and as craig newmark (the founder of craigslist) puts it, 'to realize that most everyone is OK, means well and wants to get along.'  i've used craigslist for a variety of purposes, and i have yet to have any negative experiences (minus the occasional flake here and there).  for example, my rideshare experiences have all been positive - my most recent ride was with CFO of a public company in the bay area who was driving down to arizona to pick up her daughter from college, and before that i rode with a professor and documentary filmmaker from los angeles.  not only did i catch rides, but also got to meet interesting people to help make the trip even shorter.

please realize that this is not an endorsement for everyone to go out and hitch rides off of craiglist or to put complete faith in whatever strangers are out there.  the rideshare thing is definitely a little more on the extreme side, so i wouldn't except anyone, particularly females, to make use of such services.  for every 99 good experiences out there, there is always that 1 negative experience - martini_gal can surely attest to that.  but i bring up the rideshare example to illustrate my own affection for craigslist and the purpose it serves.  despite my growing cynicism that comes along with age, i'm still an idealist at heart and craigslist helps me realize what a supportive and helpful community we're all a part of.  not to mention that it's a great place to save money for a cheap-ass like myself.

maybe some other time i'll write about my obligatory craigslist crazy-girl experience.  but probably not.