My Car Or The Van?

I have a lot of places I am going to from now till about Thanksgiving that prompt me to figure out if I can use my parents' minivan, which I have used only once since getting it back with a new alternator (and that was only for getting fast food).  I want to use it because I don't want to overtax my car.  But the options to use the van aren't great.  Consider:

• Yesterday/Thursday: Work, then coming home, then going to see the Gophers men's basketball Game at Williams;
• Today/Friday: Going to fuck ****e, then getting my shoes shined downtown, then coming home, then probably going to Eat Street to eat Greek with friends;
• Tomorrow/Saturday: One final Game-watching event downtown, then maybe seeing a concert in St. Paul;
• Sunday: Going back to The Barn to see the Gopher women's basketball team host legendary UConn.

I work on top of all that, so I am looking for opportunities to use the van and not my car.  But they appear to be limited.  Going all the way to ****e's place sucks.  Yet, last time I went to see her I used the van.  However, I didn't follow that up with going into downtown Minneapolis to get my shoes shined.  Today I will, and it'll be such a horrendous pain-in-the-ass to try and parallel park a van, so using it today is a no-go.

I thought about using the van for both Gophers Games.  But crime is on the rise in Dinkytown, and I don't want to leave a 20-year-old van in the area for fear that I would come back and see it's gone.  (I used my car to go to The Barn to see the Gopher men's b-ball team play last/Thursday night, BTW.)  And downtown Minneapolis?  Forget it -- van's too big and I won't be able to find any place to park it for free.  And I'm likely going from the Game to the concert, so if I'm not using the minivan for the Game, I ain't using it for the concert.

Finally, Eat Street is in South Minneapolis, and that too is dodgy safety-wise.  However, I saw on the restaurant's website that there are parking lots close to the restaurant that I can park in.  For some reason, seeing that they have the use of lots for customer parking makes me think using the van will be OK.  So I will use it to have dinner with friends tonight/Friday night.  It might be the only time I drive the minivan for the next week though, I'm afraid.