I was robbed by a young woman in a parking attendant's uniform.

I decided to forgo the convenience of the $12 parking garage today and park in the slightly less accessible $9 parking garage.  That's a savings of $3 per day.  $15 per week.  $60 per month. That's worth sitting in line to exit for as long as it would take you to get 3/4 of the way home, not to mention the waves of claustrophobia when you start thinking about if the parking structure collapsed and you were crushed under cars and cement while you're waiting in the massive line of cars, right?  I thought so too.

Today I parked on level 5A so I was grateful (in a round about way) when work got busy and I needed to stay late to finish things up because that meant I didn't have to wait in a line of cars for 10 levels (5A, 5, 4A, 4, 3A, etc.) to exit the parking garage.  When I handed the parking attendant my ticket at 6:45 this conversation happened...

PA: That will be $17.85.

S: I'm sorry, how much did you say?

PA: $17.85

S: I owe you $17.85?

PA: Correct.

S: I thought this was a $9 PER DAY lot...

PA: It's $9 per day up to 10 hours.

S: So I've been parked here for more than 10 hours?

PA: Yes.

S: So instead of $9 I have to pay $17.85?

PA: Yes.

I was upset that I had somehow mistaken "per day" to mean an entire day.  I mean, why wouldn't I think "per day" meant 10 hours?  Everyone knows that when people say "per day" it means "for the first 10 hours and then we will require you to hand over your entire life savings". But I went from upset to furious after I pulled out of the garage and did the math on how long I had been there.  

Here's a story problem for you.  

Stephanie works in downtown Seattle and parks in a parking garage. This morning she arrived at her desk at 8:35am and left her desk to go home at 6:40pm.  It takes Stephanie five minutes to walk from her desk to her car. How long was Stephanie parked in the parking garage?

Did you answer 10 hours and 15 minutes?  I was 15 minutes over the unadvertised limit and ended up paying double what I expected and $6 more than if I had parked in my favorite garage.

I really need to figure out which bus I ride.