Today on the light rail, I was busted for not having a valid fare.

Before I get called all sorts of names for taking a free ride, hear me out. I have a Q card (it’s a card with a balance you can add money to online or at one of the platforms) that was issued by the institution I work for. Every month, a little bit of money is taken from my paycheck and my workplace subsidizes the rest to add $50 a month to my card. Every now and then, I convince somebody to drive me to work or pick me up so I save a little bit of time on my commute. That leaves me with spare money on the card for weekends or more specifically, the rodeo when it rolls around.

Well the medical school does not like when you hog money on your card and tends to turn off your card without notice. So sometimes you may think your card has a balance, but it doesn’t. This happened to me Friday night.

I was heading downtown to the Aeros game and obviously had no reason to drive, so I took the light rail to meet the crew at HOB. I was trying to figure out if I should stop at Bell Street Station or continue to Main Street Square. It was rather cold, so I decided to wait until Main Street.

Big Mistake.

When I exit the train, I notice about 3 Metro Policemen at each end of the platform. I never thought these folks would be checking at 7 p.m. on a Friday.

MetroCop: “Can I see you tickets or Q card?”
I hand him my Q card, though my knees are shaking a bit because I know what is about to happen..either that or it’s really cold outside.
MetroCop: “There’s no money on this card.”
Me: “What? I don’t ever put money on it, my job does.”
MetroCop: “Where do you work?”
Me: “xxxxxxxxxxxx”
MetroCop: “You need to make sure they put money on it.”
Me: “Well I don’t know why there’s not money on it. They’re dumb. I’m sorry.”

At this point, I’m nearing tears…mainly because I feel stupid.

MetroCop: “Well I’m just gonna write you a warning but next time it’s a $40 fine.”
Me: “Ok thank you.”

This isn’t the first time I haven’t had a valid fare. One time was because my Q card was stolen along with my purse, but luckily I had a case number and the cop didn’t care. The other time, I just simply forgot my Q card and batted my eyes out of any consequence. Now, I have proof of my lack of fare with this warning paper.

I think I may frame it.

Moral of the story: Pay for the light rail. or you will go to jail.

Today on the light rail, everybody was pissed…
….except the man that asked me about the weather.

This morning at the light rail platform, the Metro SWAT team was back in action. Two were issuing tickets and one was kind of holding a man and probably waiting for a metro car. I noticed the tag on one of the man’s uniform was “Master Peace Office”. We’ll call him MasterPO. MasterPO was giving a woman a ticket that seemed to give two shits she was being ticketed.

SheDoWhatSheWants: “I gotsa get to this address and get on da 42 bus.”
MasterPO: “You needa get off at da UofH stop.”

…….For those of you who do not know, the University of Houston is nowhere near the light rail….and UofH-Downtown (completely different school in the process of changing its name) is at the North end of the line, the opposite direction he was pointing…

MasterPO: “uh um yeah da next stop da UofH/HCC stop.”
SheDoWhatSheWants: “So da UofH stop?”
MasterPO: “Uh yeah, hol up..ey..what da next stop?”
This question was directed to his female counterpart…she was busy scolding a man about not bringing a bike on the train during peak hours.
MasterPO: looks back at SheDoWhatSheWants “Yeah da UofH stop that’s next.”

I’m sitting there wanting to tell the lady the stop is actually not where UofH is located and is called Ensemble/HCC. Ensemble because it’s where Ensemble theatre is located, a historic part of Houston, as it has been preserving African American artistic expression since the 70s. And HCC because that’s where the main campus is located. So, MasterPO, that is why the station is called Ensemble/HCC and not “uhhhh UofH/HCC”.

But it’s not over…

The light rail comes and I feel like the mood has been set for the morning. Everybody is PO’ed. The female cop makes a man with a bike get off the train because it’s “too crowded”….ummm not really. That man is pissed and starts talking mess. The woman with the ticket who was given poor directions by a man that WORKS for Metro starts rambling off about “stupid a$$ PoPos”. She meant to say Master Peace Officer. Then everybody on the train starts talking about how the “Metro platforms suck anyways”.

So basically it was all music to my ears.

And then a man asked me if it was supposed to rain today. And I got pissed off. (read here if you’re a new follower to understand that statement)

Moral of the story: Put a smile on, Houston. And learn how to give directions.