Do you accept bits of string?

January 2nd brought some changes to my life, some resolutions: namely, stay on top of my finances, cut down on the constant alcohol-fueled benders that are my evenings, make regular dental check-ups, switch cigarette brands, be a better correspondent, the usual.

A late paycheck had just arrived to soak up the holiday overdraft fees, and, though I knew that my beloved MBTA would be raising its fares in the New Year, I figured my entry-level salary would be able to absorb the blow.

Nope.

Where my entire commute had been a measly $1.25 (when you ride the B-Line, they only bleed you going inbound, that is, into downtown. They had the goddamn human decency to let you ride outbound to Allston Rock City), I was delighted to discover that not only had they raised the fare, but that they would now be charging for a previously free service.

Listen, I know this sounds like proletariat bitching, I know New York and Philadelphia and London and Paris all have public transit that is hugely expensive by comparision, but really, that's the whole point:

See, Massachusetts in general, and Boston specifically, is so hopelessly expensive that
one of it's few saving graces was the relative inexpense of the trolleys. Yes, I have put up with a half-decade of appalling service, never getting a seat, up to my tits in unwashed undergraduates, been spat at by a conductor for having the audacity to try and pay the once 85 cent fare with a dollar, watched in hopelessness as yet another train refused to stop as it hauled itself express into the pitiless cold of a New England February morning, when all we want is to get to work on time. Unless you're coming home in the evening, at which point, no matter how early you think you get out, the trains run so infrequently that you get the privilege of watching no less than 3 trains go by, as they are too full to let even another quanta on board.

But at least that indignity didn't cost me anything. Until yesterday.

You can imagine how happy I was to have a fixed expense in my very fixed income explode to 320% of what I was paying. That's right - was $1.25 for a roundtrip journey (free outbound, buck and a quarter for the morning ride in). Now it's $2.00 inbound. And $2.00 outbound. And all the fucking attitude you can handle.