SmartCard

Yesterday I was the bus idiot.

I got on the bus and scanned my card.

Bad buzz noise.

The bus driver tells me I have insufficent funds. He starts driving while I frantically search my purse for my wallet. I turn to a girl who luckily I know (one of the few people I actually know)and ask if I can borrow $1.35 until I found my wallet. The man standing next to me tells me he has tokens. Both the girl I know and the man start rummaging around in their bags for money. She got hers out first. I took her money and paid the bus. (Good ding noise.) I thanked the man. I saw a friend sitting near the back. He smiled and seemed to laugh at a good joke.

I was that good joke.

So I continued, after paying the bus, to rummage around in my bag for my wallet so I could pay the girl back.

I had no wallet.

Let me repeat. I had NO wallet.

Panic struck as I looked at the girl I knew and said, "I don't have my wallet!" Panic. "I promise I'll pay you back!" She told me not to worry about it and that I could pay her back sometime with ice cream or something.

I felt ok at that moment until I realized that I would have to get to work by Metro and I didn't have money on my card. I didn't have cash or a card to put money on my card.

I panicked.

I called my roommate in desperation hoping she hadn't left for work yet. Too late. Then I realized that not only would I not be able to get back to work but I wouldn't be able to go out to dinner for Restaurant Week like I had planned.

I considered my options.

1. Walk home to get wallet. Be really late for work.
2. Get off bus NOW. Walk home. Be late for work.
3. Beg for money as people get off the bus hoping that enough can be scrounged up for the fare. Be late for work.
4. Mooch off my friend who lent me the $1.35 hoping she has a five. Be on time.

I went with option 4. If that hadn't panned out I would have gone with option 3, but luckily, I was able to borrow $10 from my new best friend and commute saver. When I went to stand on the platform to wait for the train, my friend, the smirking one in the back, asked me if I needed a dollar.

I felt bad about mooching all day.

Last night I ran to the grocery store. Bought Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Caramel Fudge. Got cash back. Broke into my new best friend's apartment (with the help of Amy who lived there last year). Put the ice cream in the freezer, wrote a love note and left the $10.

Moral of the story: When you get of the Metro and you think, "Hm, I wonder how much money is on my card." You should really go check it right away because chances are you won't get as lucky as me and make a new best friend who has $11.35 to spare.