Busted!

I went what, a whole two days fearing for my homelessness? Yeah, I got an apartment. Or did I? I think I did, although I have yet to sign a lease. Well I'm 75% sure I got an apartment. I mean Time Warner is coming to said apartment next week to install cable and internet, (because god knows what I do without those two things!). Well we'll see I guess.

Onto more important matters. Who gets a civil disobedience ticket at 9 am in the morning? Me that's who. Now before you start to live vicariously through me, I warn that the story is pretty boring and does not involve nudity or violence in any way. It's 9 o'clock in the morning, I'm walking to the subway with my good friend Emily. We're laughing and chatting about nothing in particular. It's her first morning in her new place, my old place as of this Saturday. I'm happy to be walking to the subway with someone I know. Well last Friday, I spent my last ride on my MetroCard and spent the weekend lazily buying Single Ride tickets. Needless to say, part of my planned to be uneventful morning was purchasing a new card. As we walk in the station, I casually walk up to the machine, only to be greeting with a "No Signal" message on the screen. I've seen many out of service messages on this very machine, but never that one. Seems more suitable for a cell phone or wireless internet connection but whatever. Technology these days, sheesh.

So in order for me to buy a card I'd have to climb the stairs back to street level, walk an avenue block, descend the stairs and potentially be greeted by the very same message on the other machines. Emily had a better idea. "Squeeze in with me!" I mean, on paper, it was a good plan. No security cameras to speak of and a seemingly empty station, I went for it. It was much more appealing than the other option, and hell, I'm a good citizen and had only done this once before, which from what I hear, is pretty honorable for someone who rides the subway everyday. Of course, as we squeeze in, push through, and head for our train, a NYPD officer walks up the stairs towards us. He came from out no where. Maybe he didn't know. We played it cool.

"Can I see some ID from you two?" Shit. "Have either of you ever been arrested?" Double shit.

As much as I wanted to cry, (to try and ease the punishment a little bit), I couldn't do anything but laugh. Call me crazy, but what the hell. Hilarious. Arrested for not paying 2 dollars? The potential cell-block conversations filled my head and I nearly doubled over in laughter. The fact that I wasn't scared of being arrested was perhaps the first sign to myself that I was an adult. Usually I'd be shaking in my mom-labeled underwear. Nonetheless, there was no arrest. He silently took our IDs and called in to check for past offenses. After finding that up to that point, we had lived law-abiding lives, he handed us a ticket for sixty bucks and told us to have a better day.

As soon as he let us go, we nearly sprinted to the train in a fit of giggles. We jumped onto a train filled with the very same people who had walked by moments earlier as we stood shamed as the PO wrote up our tickets. Some people had looked sympathetic, others, like we were the scum of the earth. And as we rode on the train, we laughed and Emily mentioned something about "not belonging", and I swear, if I didn't know us, I would have been annoyed. So I figured it was just a sixty dollar subway ride. I sat in the Priority Seating. Hell, I decided I deserved it.

Oh well, makes for a good story. Especially when I had to explain to the bossman why I was late. Even my mother laughed. And if you know my mom, you know that's quite a feat!