Today I was on my way to work when I got to the Millbrae station. According to my BART ticket, I had just enough to get through the turnstiles. I was wrong. It turns out I didn't have enough money even though it said I did. So I went to the AddFare machine and found out that not only was I a little short, I was a lot short. Over a $1.50. Which is great because I only had some change and two $20s on me. And the AddFare machine doesn't take an ATM.

So I went to the counter, knowing full well my bus was bound to leave any minute now and told them what the what was. She said that even though my ticket said I had enough money, I really didn't and the reason was because the ticket just didn't print last time I used it. Which is great because I actually got to the BART station early and had plenty of time to get a new ticket, but didn't because I didn't think I needed to. And now, when I don't have much in the way of time, I have to.

The lady at the counter told me I had to leave the area, go to one of the machines outside the BART section and do something with the ticket machine to get the ticket validated, then go back to the BART section and use the ticket again. Because I am occasionally stupid, I went to do it, despite the fact I couldn't understand a thing she told me to do. And as I stood there at the ticket machine, trying to get my ticket fixed, I realized that not only was nobody really paying attention to whether or not I was taking care of the ticket, but my bus was about to leave.

Stopping what I was doing, I ran down to the Bus depot only to see my bus pull away, leaving me stranded at Milbrae. And all because the stupid BART ticket machine didn't print out how much money I had left.