I want to hug a Metro-North conductor.

Lately, I always seem to be forgetting something at home that means I spend the rest of the day inconvenienced in some way. I thought it was bad when, on separate occasions, I forgot my security badge (twice) and then my cell phone.

Today as my train pulled away from the station at around 7:30am, I heard the familiar sound of the conductor's hole-punch for approximately the 54th time (I calculated), and I realized I'd forgotten my wallet--and with it, my train ticket--in another purse. The worst part of this is that not only could I not show my monthly pass, but I couldn't even buy a ticket because I had no money on me! I was just thinking with grim satisfaction that "it's not like they can kick me off the train"...until I realized they could, at the next stop. T_T

I'd seen all of the conductors on that train multiple times, but it was a matter of whether the one who came by would recognize me as one of the monthly pass holders. As luck would have it, the one coming by to check tickets was one who I'd rarely ever seen and not even one of the ones who usually smiled at me. Fortunately, he listened with no expression to my embarrassed explanation, and without saying a word, stuck the little card in the seat back in front of me (which is how the conductors keep track of whose tickets they've checked) and moved on.

Repeat of the morning for the return trip, except this conductor said, "Eh" with a casual wave of his hand before moving on.

So I know as my mom pointed out that I looked like a commuter dressed in my business casual attire, and it's unlikely they would ever kick a girl off the train to fend for herself at a random stop, but still...Thank you, Metro-North conductors.

On an amusing side note, after this second nice conductor had passed, I was digging enthusiastically into the zhongzi left over from lunch when a guy in a business suit walked past my seat and gave a double-take. (Zhongzi are made of glutinous rice in a tetrahedral shape, stuffed with various fillings such as meat or red bean paste, and wrapped in a bamboo leaf.) In my case, mine was a red bean paste zhongzi and since I was midway through consuming it, the bamboo leaf was missing. In other words, to the guy who'd walked by and had no idea what I was eating, it looked like I was enthusiastically digging into a pile of half-digested rice and poop. ^^