John's Blog

Yesterday's post about DC had me waxing nostalgic about when I used to live there. I happened to remember a funny story about taking The Metro way back then.

I used to love jumping on a train and going down to The Mall and perusing the plethora of world class museums that are there. Although I was largely motivated by my desire to see the art, part of my motivation was this little fantasy about meeting an intelligent and exotic stranger while wandering through the museum, but I digress.

One day as I was ready to head home after a day of gallery touring, I headed to The Metro station to buy a fare card. I was aghast to find that I had only twenty dollar bills which the card dispensing machines would not take. Returning to the surface, I soon started to approach people on the street and ask them if they could break the bill. However, in my youthful hick innocence, I didn't realize that when a stranger approaches you and asks "Change?" it has an entirely different meaning than what I had intended. People were shoving change at me left and right, and when I tried to explain that I really wasn't begging, few cared. Soon, a group of bevy of young flight attendants stopped and gave me what I needed....changewise that is.....(insert fantasy here) for me to buy a farecard.

I soon realized that someone who really wanted to "work it" could probably make out OK if they wanted to scam people and beg for a living. Not that I could do that. Besides, there are so many "legitimate professions" that would allow me to lie and steal for a living if I were so inclined.