Dear Mom,

You always said I had the ability to manipulate any system, and we both know that can be good and bad. 

Well I have a small confession.  First I want to say, as I continue to mature I leave my bad manners at home but I still have a tendency to test "the system" whatever it may be, and then leave it alone even if I figured out a loop hole.  For example, yesterday I was driving home from work and had to stop in center city to pick something up at Chestnut and 15th st. The parking is awful at 6:45pm on a weekday and it's all meter parking.  The only parking spot available was for motorcycles and skooters... It was raining and freezing cold I didn't feel any motorcycles would be crusing around in this weather so I parked.  There was plenty of room for my car and I had an idea.  I knew I would get a ticket even if I paid the meter because the sign specified "for motorcycles" So I remembered that I had an old ticket in the car from months previous so I placed my old ticket in my windshield wipper and went shopping.  I came back and the other cars around me all had tickets and I took my decoy ticket from my windshield and checked to make sure it wasn't a new one and it was not!  The metermaid over looked my car thinking it was already ticketed for the violation.  I felt a bit sleezy but also cleaver.  I don't plan on doing it again because I think it's too risky but I thought it was worthy for a short story.