The nightmare known as BART

Yesterday was my last time getting to work at 8am and leaving at 5pm. At first, when I started working these hours to match what my husband was doing, it was all a-okay due to a fabulous 10-car BART train that happened to run at 5:15pm and 5:30pm. Then one day it was an 8-car train. Then a 9-car train. And regardless of what time we got to the station, we always seemed to be at the end of the line, which means I don't get to sit down. Usually a seat would free up after a few stops, and I would maneuver my body into the empty spot before some man tried to sit down, but after last night, I decided I was done.

The train was a 9-car train and we were actually second in line to get onto the train, but there was only one empty seat, and some fat lady took it. My husband and I got settled in our usual spots when we have to stand up, and then all over a sudden this creaking sound came onto the train. I looked around my husband and saw the noise came from a man with an office chair. Not only was there no space for the 100 people trying to squeeze onto the train (and this was still at Montgomery -- we had one more stop to go before leaving SF), but now there was a man with an office chair sucking up all the space right in middle of where the doors are.

When we got to Fruitvale, people were trying to get off, but really couldn't because of the man with the chair blocking all directions. I, being in the pregnant state that I am in, refused to move out of my spot to ease up foot traffic, but I was willing to try to take up as little space as I could. My poor husband was sandwiched between me and the chair man, so when some nutty old lady was trying to get off, she screamed at my husband that he had to get out of the way (which, by the way, he was trying to do that as best he could) -- like it was totally his fault that there was no room to get out of the train.

My husband got off the train, yelled back at her that he had hear her, and then I yelled that it wasn't his fault, it was the guy with the chair. The guy with the chair turned around and looked at me and actually smiled. Snotty jerk with a chair.

As we hit each station, getting closer and closer to home, hardly anyone got off and hardly any seats became available. The man with the chair refused to move his chair to make room for people getting off up until the end, when he got off at Union City. And guess what? He had to get by me. And since UC was the first time there were free seats, but I had to wait until man with chair got off and others followed, I was pretty much stuck where I was. Man with chair tried to get by me, but the box he had sitting on the chair got stuck to my bag and almost fell off. He got an angry look on his face, and my husband gave him a dirty look, and I said I wasn't going to move for him since he didn't need to move for anyone else the whole ride, and somehow he got off with his chair and box still sitting on top of said chair. Then I finally got to sit down.

So I decided that I have to weigh the good with the bad, and if I faint while by myself on BART, I'll just call my husband when I wake up and tell him I've managed to stop the whole BART system cause I passed out. Because the bigger I get, the more annoyed I'm going to be that I can't get a seat on the train, when an hour earlier I would have plenty of choices. It's just not worth it, I say. I really don't want to stand for 60 or so minutes while young men and fat people are sitting down.