I'm not absolutly sure since I don't still have RPG Maker XP but if it's the same as the others, you need to use a condition fork with the option related to the timer. It's not very precise but I think you can still found if you search a bit in this direction.
For the parallel process, it's very simple. The event will loop indefinitly in parallel with the main loop of the game. In another words, it will do the stuff by itself, aside the others event of the game. Contrariwise, the automatic event loop but stop all the others event of the game (including player moves and menu access).
I hope it's clear :/