Instant karma

Saturday, a good friend and I (along with her sweet-as-can-be little son) headed down to the Albany Tulip Fest in Washington Park. If you don't know, the Tulip Fest is an annual tradition in Albany, celebrating the city's Dutch heritage. It's a three (well, two and a half really) day event, held annually the weekend of Mother's Day.

It's intended to be a family event, and obviously intended to be a fun, enjoyable time for everyone involved. But like anything else where a crowd is involved - it sometimes gets out of hand.

My favorite thing to do at any event like this is people-watch. I saw some really cute shoes on Saturday - along with a whole lot of fashion felonies. Stacy and Clinton would spontaneously com-bust if they saw some of what we saw.

Besides fashion-fails, the other thing I like to observe (though hopefully from a distance) is the way people behave when faced with a large crowd. Somehow, either people just become more rude and self-involved - or it's just that much more obvious that some people are.

For example - as you might imagine, parking for something like this is a nightmare of epic proportions. We drove around for probably close to thirty minutes, without finding a thing. (Ultimately, I paid to park because my sanity is worth at least $10.)

Just before we finally settled our parking situation, we saw the funniest thing. A man (with a woman in the passenger seat) was driving a small, BMW two-door sedan on the main road next to the park (Madison, for the locals). There was a section that was blocked off by two construction markers like these:

I guess he was convinced that the spot was being held for him. No one else thought to park in between the markers and there are many cars that would have fit in the spot (including certain emergency or police vehicles - which may have been the purpse).

But no, this guy seemed certain the City of Albany knew he was coming for Tulip Fest, and knew that his date would not be wearing walking shoes, and saved them a spot right up front.

It's really too bad that the city put those markers too close, though. Cause Mr. Myspot backed his bright, shiny, $50K+ bumper right into that bright orange barrel.

Instant karma is a bitch.