I'm copying most of the story from an email I sent a friend:

It couldn't have been more pitiful if I had tried!!!!! I'm sitting here laughing about it now. I left in plenty of time to park and find the court. My friend who works downtown said to park near the YMCA on Alameda so I did. I started wandering around trying to find 103. The people in the YMCA directed me to the wrong place where I asked a cop for directions. He told me to follow the blue stripe, which led me on a wild goose chase to 103 W. Congress, not Alameda. By this time, I'm getting hot and frustrated and my legs are burning, so enter the tears. I ask this lady at 103 W. Congress and she directs me towards the right place. So I'm walking and crying (hahaha the image of it is cracking me up). A couple people along the way ask me for money. I finally find it and its got these huge steal doors....and theres all these thug looking guys around the place. So I have 30 minutes so I try and compose myself. When I go inside the guard at the metal detector is like, "Are you alright??" I stumble through an explanation. Now I'm lost in this ghetto *** building. Have you been to City Court on Alameda??? I find the rest room and loose it. This place is freaking me out. I see myself in the mirror and crack up. My face is red and swollen, eyes are red and bloodshot, hair is sticking out in every which direction. There's no time to freshen up so I come out of the restroom and walk up to a guard, stick out my papers and say, "Where am I going?" He tells me to find my name on a clipboard hanging by the elevator. Oh, ok. So I find my name and its some female judge in courtroom 5 on the second floor. So up I go. Of course I can't find courtroom 5. So more tears. A lady stops me and asks what I'm trying to find and points me in the right direction. So I get to courtroom 5. I can see inside. There's the judge talking to two guys. There's a note on the door saying to sign in in the front of the courtroom. So I timidly open the door. The judge is talking to her CSO and some other guy right by the sign in sheet! So I stand there. They're talking about some crackpot attorney who they can't believe made it out of law school!! Finally the one guy leaves and I sign in. The CSO told me to have a seat. So I sit and say the Serenity Prayer and I'm wishing my friend was with me; I needed my law buddy! She calls me up and I guess she was just familiarizing herself with the case but I start defending myself tearfully. She smiles and says hold on, tells me to raise my hand to swear me in hahahaha. So I do and then she says, ok defend yourself. So I told her whats up trying to choke back sobs, and then apologize for falling apart like this and she says, "I'm going to dismiss this. Just don't park within 31 feet of a stop sign again." And that was that. The CSO had me sign some things and sent me on my way. I cannot believe how upset I got. The whole experience sucked. It was just so scary. I've never been in a courtroom except for jury duty and that was just exciting. I don't know why I was so scared. I think I had all these irrational fears going into the whole thing. And then I felt like such a criminal in there. It was definetly a humbling experience and makes me even more fearful of ever drinking and ending up in there for something serious. Now I'm sitting here laughing my butt off. Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to fully convey to you the emotion of this day, to show you just how pitiful I actually was without even trying!!!!!

I sent this email to my lawyer friend who I had asked advice from. I figured it would be easier to copy it here rather than type the whole story again. LOL......WHAT an experience!