A Story

So I went in to NYC today on my day off. I went to see a couple of shows, eat some food, see some friends, shop around...you know...do whatever. So I took the hotel shuttle to the Linden Train Station for the New Jersey Transit to pay my $6 to buy my one way ticket into Penn Station. While I was at Linden Station, I bought 2 $6 tickets...one for the trip in, one for the trip out. Thinking ahead...good stuff....
Day in the city was good. I saw The Color Purple - A New Musical and an off-Broadway musical called Bernarda Alba - A Musical at Lincoln Center's Newhouse Theatre. Good deal.
On the trip home tonight, I walked into Penn Station and immediately noticed that there was a 10:09 train heading where I needed to go - and it was currently boarding. (I arrived at 10:02.)
I ran to gate 1, headed down the escalator and finally found a car that had some empty seats. I ended up finding a seat at the very front of the car. As i got on, I noticed a woman sitting behind me that...I'm going to say it...did NOT look pleasant. She looked dirty - she was scowling - and she looked a little frazzled. My first thought was, 'Ew. Do I want to sit in front of her?' But I quickly got over it - put my ticket I had purchased earlier this morning in the little back-of-seat-ticket-holder-place, and pulled out my book and started reading.
As I'm sitting there reading, the Train Guy (I don't think that's his OFFICIAL title) came up and stood by my seat and asked for my ticket. This was odd - because normally they just take it and hole-punch it and move on. I looked up at him - probably looking pretty lost - and turned to look at it on the back of my seat in the little holder I had put it in. (I did this for dramatic effect - as if to say, with my eyes, 'IT IS RIGHT THERE, STUPID!') And as my eyes reached the spot, I realized WHY he was asking: MY TICKET WAS GONE! GONE!
I quickly look to the seat behind me, to see if SKETCHY lady was acting suspicious or something...and SHE WAS GONE, TOO! A very nice young girl was sitting there, getting ready to put her iPod earphones in. I asked her if she saw my ticket on the floor or had seen it - and she said that she had just sat down there when she saw the seat was open.
At THIS point, Train Guy was getting antsy. In my mind, I started to figure out what my options were. I mean - let's be real....how many times do you think Train Guy has heard, 'My ticket is here somewhere' or 'I swear it was JUST right there!' I wasn't going to be THAT guy. PLUS - there was NO telling where Possible Thief Lady went, so I couldn't track her down and tackle her. And there are no windows that roll DOWN on the train, so I couldn't roll one down and jump. So I sucked it up - pulled ANOTHER $6 out of my pocket and went to pay Train Guy.
BUT WAIT.
If you don't PRE-purchase your tickets before boarding, you are charged an automatic $5 SERVICE FEE for buying them on the train. That is to avoid boring Train Guy with the task of getting you a ticket. It disrupts the rhythm of his hole punching routine.
SO - Total cost of train trip home: $6 for original ticket + $6 for replacement ticket + $5 for SERVICE FEE = $17.
And here is where I am with it all right now: In the grand scheme of things, $17 is nothing. I know that. I keep reminding myself that. And in the grand scheme of things, most of the time, you really SHOULDN'T judge a book by it's cover. (by BOOK in the analogy, I mean SCARY TRAIN RIDER...and by COVER, I mean HER SCARY APPEARANCE.) But as I sit here now, I can't help being angry - and thinking that if I would've played my cards a little smarter (like holding ON to the ticket when I saw the scary....."BOOK"), I wouldn't feel a need to hunt the perp down, grab her by her dirty hair, DRAG her back to the train and DEMAND she put the ticket back where she found it...and then somehow, by a yet-to-be-decided method, make a public spectacle of her. And I'm open to suggestions as to what that spectacle should be.

I guess the only other question I have is this - WHAT if Scary "Book" and 'nice' iPod girl are running an operation on the New Jersey Transit? Oh man........

Here is the 'REPLACEMENT' ticket. Notice all the hole punches? It seemed a bit excessive...but I can't really say...I'm NEW to this Train Theft thing.