Screw Public Transportation

There are many good things about public transportation. One of them is cost. Another in NYC is availabilty and proximity to just about anything. One thing that Public transportation in NYC is not is RELIABLE.

So I was going home for my ORE training and I decided that I would fly Southwest (mistake #1). Turns out that Southwest only flies out of ISLip which is in Long Island, and the only reasonable way to get there is by train. Not subway train but train train, like on an actual track... outside. So to get to the Airport it takes an hour and a half. Yuck!

Coming home this past time, I was on the train,and it kept saying there is no service between "This station" and "This station". I didn't recognize the names, so I just ignored the warning. this couldn't possibly effect me! Well, my friend, turns out it very much did effect me. All of a sudden the doors opened and they said everyone out. I got out, and they said there had been an accident,and there was an ongoing police investigation. They didn't know when the train would run again. They were sending buses. Buses! Great! Send them, get us out of here. So I sat there waiting with 300 of my closest mass transit friends until two school buses pulled up to take us to the next station... Wait. Two buses. For 300+ people. Ya. This is not going to work... So then the cabs started coming. I found a buddy, and she asked if I wanted to split a cab. Then another guy asked if he could come with us. He was a like "business guy" with the blackberry, cell, laptop, beeper combination. I mean this guy was wired. So we got into our cab, and we all decided to go to the Jamaica station, since that was closest. First he said the cab was going to be 80... each. We complained. Cab driver got on the horn with his dispatcher, and Let's Make a Deal ensued. Then he backed it down to 80 for "business guy", and 80 for the other two, since we said we were together. Cab driver got on the horn again and started arguing on speaker phone with the dispatcher, who was clearly watching Sunday football. "Business guy" said "Let us out here, we're getting another cab". Umm we were definately in the middle of the expressway. I was praying cab driver would wise up and do what he wanted. I was NOT hailing a cab on the expressway. They finally decided on $100 for all three. MAN this guy is good! from $240 to $100. Amazing! O I forgot the best part. Talking to the lady, it turns out she was from Columbus and did her Masters at Ohio State. A Buckeye! In my cab! Amazing again!

So we go to get out of the cab, and we are about to pay. After all of our bonding and bargaining and ganging up on dumb-dumb driver, "business guy" says, "Hey just give me $10 each because I was going to have to pay the $80 anyway. My company will expense it." Are you kidding me! What a stroke of luck! Take that dumb-dumb cab driver! Tell your dispatcher, "Let's Make a Deal" guy, to shove it! So it all turned out all right... AND I met a Buckeye!