Our apartment is so not family friendly!

Here in New Jersey I live on floor 4 of my apartment complex. It's built like a hotel, so I have to go into the lobby and up the elevator to get to my unit.

I have to park in a parking garage across the parking lot - on floor 3.

So to get home I have to park on floor 3, take the elevator down to floor 1, walk outside the garage, across the street, into my building, up the elevator to floor 4, and then down a long hallway to my apartment.

HUGE PAIN IN THE REAR!!

Now, imagine doing this every single week with two kids AND an entire weeks worth of groceries. It's virtually impossible.

So, I park against the curb of my building, use my stroller as a make-shift grocery cart, and go up the elevator and down the hallway to my unit.

THEN, I have to take the kids back out, down the hall, down the elevator, load them up into the car, drive it into the garage, and then I have to park on floor 3, take the elevator down to floor 1, walk outside the garage, across the street, into my building, up the elevator to floor 4, and then down a long hallway to my apartment.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. I finished putting the groceries away and got sidetracked doing something with the kids.

Fast forward to tonight at 12:30am. I finally realized (a day and a half later) that I never moved my car. So I left my kids alone in the apartment asleep (that's illegal, right?), ran down the hall, down the stair well, and outside to make sure my car wasn't towed.

Well, it wasn't. But now I have a boot on my car and I have to pay a $30 fine to get the boot removed.

Better than paying a towing company, but still!!

I'm totally annoyed about it b/c I wouldn't have had to illegally park if this complex didn't make it so hard to get my groceries from my car to my apartment!!!

On top of me having to pay $55 per month per car (2 cars) just to have the privilege of even getting to park at my own apartment complex (that, by the way, costs $3200 a month to rent from - yup, they don't give you a "free" parking pass to park at your own home!) I now have to pay an additional $30 because I parked somewhere that was slightly more convenient for me so that I could get my groceries in the door w/o the popsicles completely melting.

Argh!!!!!!