Can I just get my car back?

People sometimes talk about street harassment as an unfortunate by-product of city living. I got a better one: getting towed. Nobody enjoys this experience. Nobody. But I really wasn’t prepared to feel so uncomfortable as it progressed. First, I had a cabbie come back to get me after he delivered his previous passenger. He said, “I said to myself, I should go back and see if that beautiful lady is still waiting.” I was so desperate for transportation I went with him, listening to him jabber about helping out a needy young woman all the way. Too bad. Because it really was sort of sweet for him to come back for me (not to mention making it his life’s mission to find the tow lot). I only felt partially preyed on sitting in his cab until I looked over to the van hovering next to us and saw the passenger waving and mouthing kisses to me. So I got to spend my morning shelling out over a hundred dollars for my stupid parking mistake AND be consistently reminded that the perception of my gender makes me a moving target in this world. - HA