I Just Had To Pay For A Ticket

When you are not at your final destination but realize that your bus pass may (or may not) have expired the previous day, and you sneakingly do the math in your head and discover that, in fact, you have been travelling for 30 days on the bus, you have two options.

You can pretend that the possibility of expiration never crossed your mind and try to use the pass and get really pissed off when/if somebody points out that it's expired and throw a fit and try to talk them into giving you the extra day because you didn't know.

Or you can go up to the ticket window and say that "Hey, I was wondering . . . ."

The advantages of the second option are: a) you are more likely to have an amiable conversation with the person helping you, which may make them more likely to make your case for you, and b) you feel slightly less shifty. The advantages of the first option is a) they may not notice that your pass is expired and b) it puts you in a better arguing position.

I chose the second option. It didn't work out so good, although I had the single most helpful ticket person in the history of the Greyhound organization (technically, I guess, she worked for Vermont Transit). She sat on hold for a good half hour, and called something like three numbers, all the while joking with her daughter, who had dropped in, and was in a coma a couple of months ago, and is now germ-phobic.