If you’re like me – and I learned firsthand yesterday that a number of Cambridge residents are – when you received notice to renew your city parking permit in the mail last October, you tossed it you’re your mail-to-deal-with-later pile and thought, “Oh, there’s plenty of time.”

By some act of divine intervention, I decided this past Sunday to go through the overflowing mail pile and found the parking renewal form on the bottom.

“Dear, we have to renew our parking permit,” I said to my husband, turning it over. “It looks like it expires…yesterday.”

So Monday morning, I headed to the City Hall Annex with my 9-month-old daughter.

Here’s what we learned…

Lesson 1: Renew before the deadline.

Read the following and you’ll understand why.

Permits expire on Jan. 31, and you can renew starting on Nov. 1.

You can renew by mail or by going to the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department’s office at the Cambridge City Hall Annex.

If you’ve lived at the same address (and had a parking permit there) for at least three years, you can renew it online.

Lesson 2: If you can, wait until after the renewal rush.

If you have an off-street parking spot and don’t need the permit immediately, hold off. According to the woman from the Traffic, Parking and Transportation office I spoke with, the office is hectic the entire first week of February and should slow down after that – “At least, I hope it slows down by then,” she added, sounding exhausted.

Lesson 3: Be prepared to wait – a long time.

You would think this would be a given, but a lot of people appeared actually shocked that there was an incredibly long line.

I expected it would be a wait. When I got in the door, I realized I should have expected a really long wait. This is where being from Southern California comes in handy. I have lots of experience inching forward for hours in traffic. Do I enjoy it? No, but it’s an inevitable part of life. So we walked upstairs – the line snaked around several times on the main floor and then up the stairs and around the second floor rail -- and got in line. On Monday morning, it was a roughly two-and-a-half-hour wait. Although I heard someone on their cell phone say the line was more than 200 people, I counted and it was more like 80.

One thing that made no sense is that on what I assume to be one of the busiest mornings of the year -- if not the busiest morning -- of the five potential windows that looked like they could be used for handling parking permit requests, only two were open. They opened a third one before lunch.

Lesson 4: People are actually pretty nice so don’t panic if you need to step out of line for a minute or two.

About 45 minutes in, my daughter decided she needed to eat that second. Anyone with a child knows how quickly they go from zero to starving. As I attempted to get everything out to feed her in line, a woman where the line looped back around ahead of us told me that there was a place I could sit down and feed the baby upstairs. I was hesitant to leave because after all everyone else was standing it line, but the man behind us told us it was fine for us to go and we could come right back to our spot.

And, you didn’t need to have a baby to get that kind of treatment. Several rows ahead of us, at about the two-hour mark, a woman was digging through her bag and realized she’d forgotten her mail. The guy behind her told her he’d let her back in if she wanted to run home – she said she was just three blocks away-- and get her mail.

Lesson 5: The Traffic, Parking and Transportation employees are really trying to do what they can to be helpful.

I had a less-than-stellar experience when I went to get my parking pass when we first moved into our apartment in April so I was already going into this whole experience jaded.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, a nice woman came out, thanked everyone for their patience and handed out maps to everyone and finger puppets to the children. I thought that was a nice touch.

But the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department completely redeemed itself an hour and 15 minutes into our two-plus hour wait when a woman walked by and said, “Come with me, I’ll renew your permit now.”

To my daughter’s credit, she was behaving as well as you could ask from any baby so it’s not like I was the woman with the screaming child. I was surprised and found my faith renewed in Cambridge city employees. The other people in line were actually really nice and didn’t grumble or shoot us why-do-they-get-to-cut-the-line looks, which was also much appreciated.

Once we got to the window, the process was relatively quick. We came prepared with our registration, two pieces of mail dated within the last 30 days (you can also bring a utility bill from within the last month) and $8, and we were done in literally two minutes.

“Just renew early next year,” the woman at the window said.

I promised I would.

Lesson 6: This year, it doesn’t matter if you place the sticker on the back driver’s side window or the lower left corner of the windshield.

I wanted to put the permit on the car as soon as possible. On the back of the sticker, it says to place it in the far-rear driver’s-side window. So I did, right above last year’s permit.

Then I got in the car, and as I was sorting through the papers they give you with your permit, I saw a yellow half-sheet that said, “STOP. YOUR PERMIT MUST BE PLACED IN THE LOWER LEFT SIDE OF YOUR WINDSHIELD.”

My heart sank at the thought that I would somehow have to go back and wait two more hours because I put the permit in the wrong spot. However, I called the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department information number.
“Hi, I got my sticker and I put it on my car, and I just learned…,” I said.

“That it should be on the windshield?” The woman on the other end of the line said, obviously having heard the question several times before. “Don’t worry about it. This year it can go in either spot. Next year, it has to go in the front.”

I thanked her and promised her I'd remember that for next year.

And I promised myself I'd renew early and save myself from having to repeat this entire ordeal next year.