Monday August 5th 2024 was a very important day because it was the beginning of the Sleep-Away Camp–which I initially thought I(my daughter) would not be eligible for because it had a lot of requirements which I didn’t think I would fulfill. Anyway, she got approved. The deal was to drop her off at the pick-up spot in Manhattan by 8 am, and time was of the essence, per the given instructions.
This day was very important because the two weeks that she’s gone would free me to really look for jobs, and most likely get one. I’ve had to pass up several jobs because I could not keep up a work schedule–dropping her off to Summer camps program at 9am and picking her up at 3 pm. That’s too tight a schedule to fit in a full time job. But then again, being a TI, don’t be surprised if the jobs that were chasing you when you could not accept them, are all of a sudden, nowhere to be found, now that your hands are free😂. You know how that goes. It’s too early to tell(only one day in), but we shall definitely keep you posted about the jobs drama. I’d have shown you the numerous job offers but you know we’re big on anti-doxxing here. We’re only telling a story, not trying to paint anyone on negative light/impugn their character.
We were supposed to leave the housing facility by 6:30 am, to give us enough time to get to Manhattan, plus squeeze in a breakfast. We ended up leaving at almost 6:40 am, which is not very bad, but we were running late. When we got to the 179th street subway station, we found a line at the ticket machine🙄–you already know what time it is. We were running late, and now all of a sudden, there’s “a crowd” at the ticket machine. I use this subway entry point a lot, and it’s notoriously empty–but for some reason, not on the morning of August 5th🙄.
But anyway, there was not only a line on this day, but also, interestingly, the “passengers” in front of me, buying tickets, seemed to be having a lot of “problems” with the machine, which meant the line was barely moving. There were two other machines but they were “not accepting bills”, which was my preferred method of payment. Credit/debit card payments are notoriously troublesome at subway ticket machines, so the best option is usually bringing cash.
Long story short, me and my daughter, already on a time crunch, were stuck in line with these “passengers” having a hard time buying tickets.🙄
It was clear I would be there for a long time waiting on “the passengers” so I took the desperation route and–wait for it–jumped the turnstile😳. Yup, I did it, deal with it.😂 Thinking I was home free and headed for the F train boarding platform, a group of NYPD officers, all of a sudden, popped up, with the female officer telling me to go back and pay. The “secret on the street” is, to only do the “jumping maneuver” if there’s no cop in sight😂, so I clearly didn’t see any of them prior to doing it. Oopsie😂
I’ve never seen officers at this station but on this VERY important day, where I was RUNNING LATE, there was (1) “trouble” at the ticket counter, and (2) NYPD officers to make sure nobody was doing the “jumping maneuver”. Hmm, coincidence? I don’t know, but as a seasoned targeted individual, I have been through so many “running late incidents” to just pass this off as happenstance.
Luckily on this Monday morning, I had my seasoned TI mindset on, so I didn’t get into an argument with the cops–Literally made a U-turn and returned to the ticket counter. A lot of amateur TIs fall for this and get into arguments/confrontation with the cops–wrong move. This seasoned TI didn’t say anything, just walked back to the ticket machine and tried to use the credit card. I didn’t want to wait for the “passengers” having “trouble” buying tickets. I decided to try my luck with the credit card machines and luckily on this day, it processed my payment. Lucky me.🙄
I got my ticket and walked by the observing officers(I don’t think they expected the credit card machine to work😂), without even making eye contact–like nothing even happened. That’s how it’s done, folks, learn from this seasoned TI.😂
Anyway, my position here is that, it was KNOWN that a TI was coming to that station, and that he was running late for a VERY important mission, hence the “problems” at the ticket counter + the cops. But hey, we report, you decide. And speaking of ticket counters, I’ve never understood why subway ticket counters have SO MANY problems–not accepting bills, problems processing credit cards etc–when that is supposed to be their way of collecting $$$.
Any serious business would make the payment process super easy/efficient.🤷♀️ Remember, the problem here was not that I didn’t want to pay/didn’t have the fare, but rather that it would have taken too long to get the ticket–and we were on a super time crunch. Let’s just say, the “passengers” at the ticket counter didn’t appear to be in a rush. You get the drift.😂🙄