It was late. My first day to work after the holidays and I meandered bleary-eyed to the BART station.<\/p>\n
The chunk-chink<\/i> of the faregates greeted me. I took out a BART farecard with $1.60 because I hadn’t left my apartment early enough to buy the January fast pass.<\/p>\n
As I walked toward the stairs, I heard the whish of a train just leaving. Did I miss one? I’ll catch the next one.<\/i> But when I walked down the stairs, I was greeted by a huge mass of people. All with impatient faces. I heard a gasp and then a grunt of someone behind me.<\/p>\n
OH MY GOD,<\/i> someone said aloud.<\/p>\n
I circled around the platform. <\/p>\n
20 minute delay. We are experiencing…<\/i> the loudspeaker said. Almost an attempt to calm the discontent of the crowd.<\/p>\n
I instantly thought of my $1.60 BART ticket and cursed myself for not buying the fast pass earlier. I walked upstairs and went to see the station agent to see if I could get the money back. Unlike the people who needed to get to the east bay, I only needed to go 4 stops to get to work. But I didn’t want to forfeit my $1.50.<\/p>\n
The station agent waved the crowd away gathering near her door. She was on the phone, attempting to deal with the emergency.<\/p>\n
I don’t have time to deal with this now,<\/i> she said bluntly and then turned away from us. I walked through the exit gate.<\/p>\n
And took the 14 to work. All 20 minutes of its misery. Listening to people talk on their cellphones. And sitting on plastic seats.<\/p>\n
After work, I went to the station agent at the BART station and explained my situation. He looked at me quizically and took my ticket. <\/p>\n
“There’s nothing on it,” he said and handed me a dime. “That’s all that’s left.”<\/p>\n
I pushed the dime back and said that I was unable to take the BART this morning. Because of an incident. I repeated myself. INCIDENT. THE TRAIN WAS NOT MOVING SO I HAD TO TAKE THE BUS.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t expecting him to acquiesce for the measly $1.50, but I knew that I would start feeling negative if I didn’t resolve it. Right now.<\/p>\n
After a minute of raising my voice to a near argument and squawking, he handed me my ticket back. Fixed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was late. My first day to work after the holidays and I meandered bleary-eyed to the BART station. The chunk-chink of the faregates greeted me. I took out a BART farecard with $1.60 because I hadn’t left my apartment … Continue reading