On Claims and Karma

Guest WriterGuest writers for Naked Girl in a Dress are planned at least a month in advance, but the writing schedule for my own posts is much closer to the published dates. That means the guest writers during the current series were chosen before I plotted out the posts I would be writing. Last week we enjoyed a light, fun post by Brandon about zombies while I was writing about commitment and independence. It was comic relief for the first week in the series.

This week I laughed at the coincidence with the guest writer: Classic NYer. I could not think of a better piece to have the week I wrote about stress and happiness. Her post fits beautifully. After you read what Classic NYer shared here today, please visit her site, follow her on Twitter, and on Facebook.

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I usually ask my husband for a metrocard these days before I go anywhere, because he gets them free. On this day I had forgotten to ask, but this was no big deal since I had a few dollars in my pocket. I also had a metrocard with a few cents left on it, so I took it to the vending machine to refill it.

And, of course, the machine ate my money.

I approached the ticket booth armed with my receipt as evidence of my honest misfortune, but there was nothing the man at the booth could do about it. He gave me a claim form and an envelope addressed to the MTA claims department, and told me that I would have to mail in that form to get my money back.

I know a little bit about MTA claims. I had to make an MTA claim once. The short version is that I’m still waiting to get my $104 back. Yes, I did follow up by phone. I got sent around in a circle jerk of call transfers. The only clear and relevant response I got was by an automated message saying that if I was calling to check on the status of a claim, I should be advised that they are experiencing a backlog of several weeks.

Meaning that MTA claims is at worst a racket and at best a broken machine.

Meaning I’m probably never going to see those hundred four hundred eight dollars again.

The man let me into the station with no charge, but I was still livid. It took the entire train ride from 145th street to Penn Station (all local stops) before I calmed down.

Some hours later, I was ready to go back uptown, but reluctant to spend another two dollars and change for the trip. I decided that I would walk… at least until I got tired. It was in fact a lovely day to walk, and I did so slowly, stopping periodically at coffee shops and other wifi hot spots to sit for a moment and jot notes onto my tablet. I was tired by the time I got to 96th street, and convinced myself that I could spare the money.

I inserted my metrocard into the vending machine to refill it. It rejected my card as being unrefillable. Unrefillable? That makes no sense; there are already a few cents on it! I looked at the expiration date. It hadn’t passed yet. I swiped the card through the card reader machine to ascertain that I had the right one. “Please swipe again,” it said over and over.

Oh. My. God.

But I was too tired to argue. So I picked up a card that was discarded near the card reader machine. I swiped it to be sure it was refillable. “Please swipe again.” Yeah, fuck you too. I inserted it into the vending machine to try to refill it anyway. “This card contains $23.15. How much would you like to add?”

Wait, what? Did somebody really discard a twenty three dollar metrocard on the floor by the card reader?

I read it again. “This card contains $23.15. How much would you like to add?”
“As a matter of fact, nothing.” I really did speak those words out loud as I cancelled the transaction.

“So my question is,” I mused to my husband a short train ride later, “even though technically I still have a claim to $4 with the MTA, should I let it go for karmic reasons?”

He thought I should let it go.

What do you think?



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2 responses to “On Claims and Karma”

  1. I can so relate to this Murphey’s Law Karma Testament…Awesome Post…I read somewhere:

    “How people treat you is their Karma…How You relate to their actions towards you is yours.”

    I would let it go and let the MTA suffer the pee-ridden karma it perhaps is destined to suffer day in and day out.

    Nevertheless, super great post.

    Stopping by from Classic NYC Story!

    Blissful Karma,

    Nicki G. The Blissful Wife
    http://www.blissfulvida.com

  2. […] On claims and karma […]