Day 3 Part 2: Regret

I left the security zone which was a terribad idea. In addition to a lack of seating, lack of anything to do and lack of internet and power jacks the food is overpriced and froo froo. My friend finally picks up his phone about two hours later. At this point he starts describing to me that he can't actually pick me up tells me to get onto the BART to get out to the suburbs in the middle of nowhere. I'm a little apprehensive of this due to not knowing this area of the world much or how their subway system works. I wait about two hours in the airport reading a book before having to leave on to the BART to get to the station in synch with my friend. I get on the train and get off at the stop where I am supposed to change trains. I remember my friend telling me to look at the blinky red signs. These inform me that theres going to be maintenance on the tracks on sept 14^th. Awesome, I walk up the stairs wandering around looking for the train I have to go on. I can't seem to find it the only exit is back to where I came from or outside where I have to pay again to get back in. I walk over the the attendant and ask how to get to the correct train line and he points towards the stairs leading down. I go back down and I stare at the blinky red signs for a few more moments before I realize that multiple trains go down the same track. Feeling like a total dumbass I stand and wait for a train with nobody else in the station with me but a mysterious cardboard box hanging out on top of a phone booth. From the clearly non frightening reading material about the BART I had it said that boxes like that are usually filled with explosives and or hypodermic needles.

The train shows up I quickly shuffle on board and take my seat. I get to the end of the line about an hour and a half later with a call from my friend saying its going to be about 45 minutes before he shows up. As it turns out I am unaware of this at the time of the experience. The train stop I got off at is in Oakland CA, which happens to be a gang war-zone. I am puzzled because my friend knows exactly when I will get at the end and he supposedly left in time to get there with a few minutes to spare. I start walking around looking for a place to sit. I ask the attendants again if there is a bench or something around here and they tell me that there are some out side across the street. I wander outside, I'm in a tunnel and I follow the small crowd of people heading to the right because they obviously want to sit on benches too. It's dark, moderately sketchy and the only other people around while I am waiting are angry sounding taxi drivers. I'm sitting there wondering to myself if my friend really just wanted to know if I would actually come to San Francisco and that he never actually intended to pick me up. It would be kind of funny in hindsight if this was true but it would also suck quite a great deal. An hour has passed then it starts to rain, awesome. I leave my stone cylinder that I was perching on and go and hide underneath a structure of some kind. The thought of , “Is this acid rain?” passes through my head when I notice that I am thirsty. I call my friend again leaving a message about how it's raining now. Fifteen minutes pass I am still alone at the station thinking to myself, “Dammit why didn't I stay at the airport at least they had comfortable seats I can sleep on.” Ten minutes later I get a call from my friend explaining about how he got pulled over and he'll be here shortly. My friend shows up stuffs me into the back of his car that is already fully loaded.

So I have two friends here, who happen to be doing the boyfriend girlfriend thing. Ben and Cherie, they are pretty alright fellows if you ask me. We stop at a gas station for we need to not run out of fuel on the side of the road. Cherie and I go into the gas station, I get a pink lemonade. The guy who replenishes the Krispy Kreme supply shows up and Cherie starts talking about how we need to get some. It is mentioned that Ben will eat all the donuts. We only get a couple donuts and then hit the road. I wonder why my side seems a little wet, then I realize the pink lemonade has spilled all over me so now I'm going to be sticky. I end up passing out while holding a donut box for I am a classy gentleman. I wake up as we arrive in Stanford we go inside, I wash up and then we hit the hay.