Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

So, my search for a tea ball continued today.

I stopped by Montague's, certain they would have what I was looking for.  Alas, they did not.  But the gentlemen ahead of me in line recommended another store, that was 'somewhere downtown.  On Tejon.  Between Colorado and Boulder.'  Which is an area of about five or six blocks.

So I gamely drove up Tejon.  And down Tejon.  And nothing.

After several phone calls, I found that what I was looking for was on Tejon, just a bit north of Pike's Peak.  So I park just a bit north of Pike's Peak and put a dime in the parking meter.  My thought being, sure it's only six minutes, but what I'm looking for is right across the street.  Wrong - it was another block up.  As I continued up Tejon, searching (vainly, it felt like) for address numbers in store windows, I finally found the shop I was looking for and purchased a container for my loose tea.  It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it'll do.

Make nice talk with clerk, pay, and leave.  I cross the street and see, in the distance, a man near my car.  I'm wearing a skirt and it's a bit windy, so this girl ain't runnin' for nothin'.  I get a bit closer and realize I just received a parking ticket. 

So the tea ball that shoulda cost me three bucks and ten minutes of time has ended up costing me fifteen bucks and two days.

One day, I will learn to stop tempting fate.  Maybe before I'm 40.