I've been using public transpo to commute to work every day for a few months now. Part 1 of my commute home involves buying a Metro tix for $1.50. It's chump change right? But for the most part I rarely bothered buying a tix because for the first couple weeks, I didn't even know where the machine was and I never got checked when entering and exiting. (I can't be the only one who has ever skipped paying fare, right?) But since Sept, I noticed that more and more officers were doing checks when entering the station, so I would buy tix to get in, but I never got checked when I exited the station. So on days when I didn't see anyone checking the entrances, I never bothered with a tix, cus officers were never at my exit station. (I always pay when I hop on the bus though, $2.20 to get home. My commute in the morning doesn't require me to buy an extra tix- I pay $2.45 on the bus and ask for a transfer which doubles as a tix. I see plenty of officers in the morning and they NEVER stop me to ask for a tix. Weird.)
But I decided yesterday and today to buy tix anyway even if I didn't see any officers at the entrances. Yesterday I didn't get checked when I left, so moot point. Today I was debating for a sec, should I? Shouldn't I? So I decide what the hell I would. So I bought my tix and rushed down to my train. And missed it by seconds. Literally the door closed when I was 15 feet away! So in my head I was like, ARGH it's all because I took an extra minute to buy a Metro tix. It was 4:15, and the screen said the next train was coming at 4:21 and my bus comes at 4:25 and 4:40. So I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to take the 4:40 bus. However, a few min later another train comes so I hop on it. (I don't get what is the point of posting schedules if it's not accurate?) It stops at 4:21 and I think yay, I have 4 minutes to catch the bus! And since it's raining, buses are notoriously even more late. So I rush up to my usual exit (yes, I eventually did get it right!) and for the first time ever, there's like 5 officers checking EVERYONE for tix! Even me! And. I could not find. My. Ticket. The officer didn't believe me when I said I bought the tix and couldn't find it so he told me to move over to the wall and give him my ID. So as I'm lugging my ass and my stuff to the side, I hand him my ID and I continue to rummage through my bags and it was the last place I looked- the left pocket of my scrunched up blazer (I was hot from running all over). Sigh. So I gave it to him and he took his sweet time READING it to make sure it was legit. By now I was sure I had missed my bus but I ran up the escalator anyway. And guess what! My bus was at the corner!! And my light was green...meaning the bus couldn't take off yet even if no one was waiting for it. So I ran across the street and got on. I think only Jerry understands how happy I was to see the bus at the corner in the rain because there's been so many times that I've missed it even though I've followed the schedule. I've shown up at 4:15 for a 4:25 bus only to have the bus show up at 4:35 cus it was late. What's the big deal right? If you miss the 4:25 bus, just wait for the 4:40 bus. Well, I've shown up at 4:26 only to find out that it was actually on time, and that logically the next 4:40 bus should be on time, but it's not so I don't hop on until nearly 5. Thankfully, the actual bus ride is a short 20 minutes. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time waiting than I do actually riding.
Still despite the craziness, I prefer public transportation over driving on 110 any day. I'll just have to wrap up my work as early as I can, buy a tix, and keep my tix where I can find it. And hope that the bus follows the schedule. I can't always win, but today I got really lucky and I did!
Good thing too. I did a bit of online shopping earlier today and spent way over the fare evasion fine. Spend $1.50 on a Metro tix, buy shoes and dresses > don't spend $1.50 and pay a 16,000% surcharge. Lesson: learned.
On a not so completely different note, endless.com and modcloth.com sells such pretty things.
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