I had planned to spend the Christmas weekend with my Aunt and Uncle in Daly City. And since holiday traffic was terrible and I lived far away, I had to take the Bart because it was more practical. Mind you, I've never taken the Bart before. I felt like a child that was going on a new adventure (even if it seemed so ordinary, I was excited). So that Christmas afternoon at 30 minutes past 3 I took my very first ride.

My friend Gerard dropped me off at the El Cerrito station. I said goodbye and went to buy a ticket. I bought the wrong ticket and so I had to buy another one. After purchasing the right ticket, I got in and took a comfortable seat near the door. And so my first Bart ride began.
I thought everything was going smoothly and so I relaxed and enjoyed some of the scenery that the route offered.

I got off at the right station and confidently walked towards the exit. But when I slipped my hand in my pocket, I couldn't find the ticket. I lost the damn thing and when I looked around, there was no one at the booth! I went to the ticket machine and found that it only took 1 or 5 dollar bills and I only had a twenty. In my head I thought "what in the world do I do now?!" I saw an emergency exit door and decided to take it since there was no one there.

The moment I got out, a man in a uniform approached me and said "You're not supposed to use the emergency exit." So I apologized and explained that it was my first time to take the Bart." and smiled. He only looked at me and said "If the Bart police caught you, you would've been fined 500 dollars." I then asked "So how do we go about this?" And so he led me to a ticket machine which accepted 20s and I purchased a ticket which I then handed to him. I thought "Geez, where's your holiday spirit?" Apparently, he either had none or he was just being defensive. Oh well, either way, he did his job.

I walked out and called my Aunt to ask her to pick me up. And as I thought that things couldn't get any worse, the man and another guy got into a big fight. As I listened to their verbal exchange of curses and arguments, I found that the other guy was trying to get in without a ticket.

I lit a cigarette and thought "Now this is another misadventure that will go in the books and be among the many that have happened and will probably happen in the future. Bad shit tends to happen to me and sometimes they come in three consecutive instances that inadvertently becomes funny. It's like-just when I thought, things couldn't get any worse-they do. I only end up laughing about it. I mean when I think about it, those bad instances are like scenes from a comedy and I have the starring role.

Shit happens once in a while and my take on that is-it's not worth stressing over and laughing about it is the best way to deal with it. It's healthy to have a sense of humor. I also find that these misadventures turn into stories that I tell people to get their spirits up whenever things go wrong or that their having a bad day. I guess also like with the rule of opposites-they define each other. So it's like bad shit happens to put emphasis and help us value the good things that have happened and all the good that we've got going in our lives.