Another interview today, this time with Super-Mondo Corporation somewhere in the Peninsula. I know it's a job and things are looking pretty bleak for yours truly these days, but I really do hate job interviews in the Peninsula. I don't have a car so I have to take pub trans and since none of the places are right by pub trans, it's always an ordeal to get there. It's either train/train/bus or train/train/walk or train/bus/cab or some sort of variation on those listed. It usually takes pretty much half a day to go down there and they can get kind of pricey, whether it be for cab fare, things to entertain myself for the hour-long train ride, or lunch. Considering how many of these interviews I've done and considering how well they've all gone, I'm really loathe to have to do it again. Still, it's a job and Super Mondo Corporation wants to throw gobs of money at me, so I'm off.

On my way there, I go to get a ticket for the CalTrain portion of the trip when just as I get to the machine, the train comes. I have a decision to make- buy the ticket and possibly miss the train or not buy a ticket and make the train but risk getting busted. CalTrain has one of those Honor System type systems wherein you're supposed to buy a ticket and nobody checks to see if you have a ticket, but occasionally they'll have the Ticket Police on board checking. If you don't have a ticket, you get sited. I've done CalTrain with both a ticket and without a ticket and in all the times I've taken the train, I've never been asked to show them my ticket. In fact, I can't even remember seeing any sort of guy checking tickets. I also know I have a pretty good excuse, I'm willing to throw down and give the guy money if need be, and I'm only about four stops away. So I risk it. There's no chance of getting busted, right?

I got busted.

I was sitting there, one stop away from the stop that I have to get off when the squirelly bald short guy with a bad moustache and obvious Napoleonic small-guy issues asked for my ticket. I told him I didn't have one and that I had to run from BART to CalTrain straight without getting a ticket because I needed to make the train. He didn't buy it. He tells me basically that whatever the next stop is, I need to get off and buy myself a ticket. As my stop was the next one, I said okay, fine by me, and thought that was the end of it. Phew.

The guy takes about four steps away from me, then turns around and asks me what stop I'm getting off at. Now we have another decision to make. I could lie and tell him I'm getting off at like San Jose so that getting off at the next stop to buy a ticket then waiting for the next train wouldn't be that big of a deal. Or I could tell him the truth and hope he'll be cool and let me go considering I've only been on the thing for about ten minutes. Turns out short, bald, badly moustached guy with Napoleon Complex isn't cool. He radios someone else on the train and tells me that I'm gonna get sited.

My stop comes and we get off. Another Ticket Cop meets him and they stand there, radio in the information to Ticket Cop HQ and write me up. Now this is taking awhile to figure out and since both of the Ticket Checking Cops are riding the train, the train can't start until they finish up. Which basically means the train is now held up because they're busy writing me a ticket. Not to mention that everyone is now staring at me wondering why I'm holding the train up. I get the ticket, they hop on the train, and that ends that.

The end result of all of this? I have to friggin go to court next month. In San Mateo.