There are many well documents differences between men and women.  There is one, however, that I haven't read much about.  It has to do with parking a car in a public parking lot.  My experience and observations suggest those differences are significant.  Most women just look for the first parking space they can find regardless of how far it is to the store.  Finding one, they pull in, with no remorse should one closer open up.  To them parking is just one of the necessities of driving a car; there is no sense of challenge in it.

With men, there is a completely different mindset.  With men, they turn parking into a game, albeit a serious game, that requires plans and strategies.  That is true, however, only when the man is alone or their spouse has grown weary of complaining about the many miles they put on the car driving up and down parking lot lanes.  If she still is active in deciding where to park, most men take their wives' advice and just park in the first open parking space.  There is a straightforward "park the car" command and the husband softly mutters but obeys, knowing if he doesn't that he will be hassled until he does find a place to park and gets into the store.

Most men, however, I suspect are more like me.  When it comes to parking at the local Publix grocery store it's a challenge which rarely results in success but rather with failure and frustration.  There are a few situations that can cause this frustration, each the result of not finding a spot very close to the store.  In the first instance it is when you are waiting for someone, typically a woman, to get their groceries into their car and leave.  You try to  wait as long as you can as she loads her groceries, parks the cart, gets in her car, finds the keys, turns the mirror so she can adjust her lipstick, readjusts the mirror, starts the car, tunes the radio and finally looks around to pull out.  As you sit there waiting, a check of your rear view mirror reveals a growing line of cars anxiously waiting to pass you.  Given enough time, the horns start to sound and you begin to panic.  Only the strongest maintain their place; most finally cave in and move on, only to see the car behind them pull into the woman's spot. 

It's a similar situation to go down a lane not seeing an open space.  As you reach the end of the lane and prepare to turn into the next lane, you look into your rearview mirror and watch a car just a few feet back pull out of a space.  It is impossible to backup as the exiting car is in the way and there is a car now waiting to pull in.  At this point you are not sure if you want to smash the windshield of the car leaving the space or the car waiting to pull in.

A third situation occurs when you have tried your best to find a place near the store and finally have to admit defeat.  You then take that last parking place, furthest from the store, and start that long trek to the store's entrance.  As you near the store you now see three open spaces just a few yards from the store.  Of course you know if you ran back to your car by the time you got to those empty spaces someone else will have found them. 

Unfortunately, leaving the parking lot isn't the end of it.  When you arrive home your wife greets you with that question that caps the whole experience.  "Did you waste an extra ten minutes driving around the parking lot trying to find a open space close to the store, dear?"