Big Brother Is Watching You(r parking spot)!

First of all, congratulations to my friend Barbie, who just had twins a couple days ago! A boy and a girl - I can't wait to meet them!

The Trib ran a John Hilkevitch article January 12 detailing what's in store with the new leased-out parking meters. I literally sat here for like 25 minutes scrolling through my history looking for the article (and I never would have found it anyway because I started in February and I kept stopping my search to read old things I'd browsed before) before Eric told me I could do a search in my browser history. Damn it sucks to do dumb stuff. Anyway. Among things this article notes:

Over time, more sophisticated "smart meters" will appear citywide, replacing today's balky pay-station kiosks that require drivers to walk back to their vehicles to place a time-stamped payment stub inside the windshield.

You can of course bid a nostalgic farewell to the decades-old pole-mounted meters with coin slots and expiration flags, as a result of the almost $1.2 billion deal Mayor Richard Daley announced last month to outsource parking management in the city over the next 75 years to Chicago Parking Meters LLC.

In addition, motorists making use of electronic collection through personal ID numbers in their cell phones or other devices will not have to return to their vehicles to add time to meters. But drivers, beware: Technology is already available to close the gap on free parking and increase the odds of catching parking meter "scofflaws." The financial motivation to use it is strong.

Based on the experience elsewhere, the next generation of meters will probably be programmed to roll their clocks back to zero time left when a vehicle leaves a parking space, so the next driver cannot piggyback on a meter that was "over-fed."

Instead of pacing sidewalks checking each meter to meet their ticket-writing quotas, police and meter maids monitoring remote computers will be notified when a vehicle's time in a parking space has expired. Drivers may even get a text message on their mobile phones that they've been issued a fine. It's already happening in about 60 cities in France, where magnetic field technology at smart-meter parking spaces detects the presence of vehicles and alerts ticket-writing aides when meter time is expired.

So who knows if that's true, but if it is it sucks.

Also, today was Rae's shower. It was beautiful and what I loved most about it was that is was chic and stylish like Rae herself, but also warm and family/friend cozy, also like Rae. It definitely made me look even more forward to coming out of the cocoon of winter and spending more time with my friends.

And I would be remiss not to mention that Brendan has gone 2 full days without nursing, so I think we have turned a corner. He is KNOCK ON WOOD sleeping MUCH BETTER (please don't let that jinx it!) Part of me (the large sentimental, overly nostalgic part that probably borders on needing to be medicated) is very sad to end this chapter, but the other part of me (who enjoys multi-tasking, being able to hold a conversation, and desires my children not to be nursing when they have facial hair) is pleased about this. In fact, the last two days have marked the first time in over FOUR YEARS that I have not been pregnant or breastfeeding. Because I stopped nursing Liam when I found out I was pregnant with Brendan. Weird. Not as weird as the fact that my mom was pregnant for 100 months of her life, but still weird.

Ok, off to read The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III...

ps. Liam quote of the day:
I said to Liam, "Hey, I went to Auntie Rachel's wedding shower today and everybody was talking about you!" And he asked, "Why?" And I said, "Because you're so cute. And funny. And wise." And he said, "Oh, but I'm not wise though." And I said, "You're not?" And he said, "No." And I said, "Well then, what are you?" He thought about it a moment, chewing his bottom lip in earnest concentration, and then said, "Precious." (but he said "pwecious" because he doesn't say the letter r very well.) I said, "Oh, precious, huh?" And he said, "Yes, but not wise."