The MBTA takes less than 3 minutes to annoy me.

Visiting Boston for the weekend, and the new Charlie Card system that the MBTA is using has already eaten one of my fares.

I bought a $10 card and swiped it through the gates. It didn't open.

The workers were dumbfounded that it didn't work; they acted like I told them that the machine had come alive and chased me. They kind of looked at each other, waiting for something magical to happen.

Eventually something magical did happen: my foolishness. A worker pointed back to the card slot. Not thinking too far ahead, I re-inserted my Charlie card, which of course did another $2 charge, and this time opened the door for me.

Opening the door for me for free after my lost charge was possible, although they were avoiding it. I knew that trying to get my $2 back on would be impossible. So I said "oh well" and walked on through.