Halloween on BART

Justin and I had tickets last night to see the San Francisco Symphony play.  This is something that Justin has been looking forward to doing since we first decided to get married, so it was kind of a big deal.  We had it all planned out that we would drive to the Fremont BART station and from there ride bart into the city, therefore avoiding the toll on the bridge, traffic, and parking fees.  It all seemed like such a good idea.  Unfortunately there were forces plotting against us yesterday, a major one being inexplicable heavy freeway traffic for a Saturday evening.  We ended up arriving at the bart station much later than anticipated and Justin was...well, he looked a bit panicked about the whole thing.  It was evident that we were going to arrive a few minutes late to the performance, and potentially enjoy the first piece from the foyer.  He became even more frenzied when the bart train just sat at the station for 10 minutes before starting off.

When the train did finally start off it was running really fast and making up for lost time.  We figured that we'd be okay.  Probably still a little bit late, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.  Then we arrived at the West Oakland station and the bart driver ordered everyone off the train because of a "medical emergency" at the Embarcadero station up ahead.  Justin didn't really even say much he just sort of marched off the train in a silent rage.  Once we got out on the platform and accustomed ourselves to the idea that we were now trapped on a bart platform in West Oakland, the Saturday before Halloween, we also started to take note of all the costumed riders from our train.  Seems like half the train was headed into the city for a Halloween party.  Riding bart on a regular day of the week is already a weird enough experience, riding it last night just took things to a whole new level.  There was a grown man dressed as little orphan Annie, a mummy, some sort of slutty witch lady, a dragon, a yodeler, and what I believe was a man dressed as a peacock.  I think that the peacock and little orphan Annie were actually a couple. There were also a countless number of women dressed in a costume that seemed to be composed only of sparkles and lots of exposed skin.  It also seemed that most of these party goers were already pretty drunk...and there in the mix of it all are Justin and I, dressed for the symphony.  As it turns out the "medical emergency" was a man who committed suicide by hurling himself in front of a train.  After who knows how long of standing around out there they finally announced that the train in the station would be allowed to drive through Embarcadero station on to the next stop, and that anyone wishing to go forward needed to board immediately.  Our stop was several stops after Embarcadero, so we rushed on and the bart train whisked us under the bay and through the Embarcadero station so fast that the only thing anyone could see were a bunch of police officers and bart people standing around.

We had to walk five blocks to the concert hall from the station, and we arrived just in time to catch the tail end of intermission.  The good news is that the second half was the part Justin had wanted to see the most, so we did get to see that in it's entirety, and it was beautifully performed.  We loved it. 

After the symphony we figured that bart would be easy going compared to getting into the city.  We were naive.  On the way to the bart station we passed more costumed people.  A ton of girls in cat outfits.  Cat outfits are apparently very popular, and not terribly original.   A storm trooper girl in a white sports bra and white spandex, along with a Jedi and Chewbacca, a man dressed as a penguin, along with his gorilla friend, a second yodeler, a banana, a whole series of slutty witches and vampires, and then the guy in high-heeled silver boots, spandex pants riding a  skateboard through the city.  The company on bart was similarly attired.  What appeared to be a lingerie model (although Justin said that she was definitely not pulling it off very well), and a cute little angry bird girl that was really the center of attention on our train....for all the drunk riders.  I think most of bart was drunk or high for the ride back.  Embarcadero was still closed, and for seemingly no reason at all the trains were all moving at a turtle's pace.  We were at LEAST an hour and a half, I think more like two getting back to the car.  By then we were thinking that the hardest part of the evening was behind us, but again we're idiots.  We took a wrong turn out of the bart station...because I told Justin to turn the wrong way, and let's just say that we spent 45 minutes correcting ourselves.

We finally made it to In-N-Out for some dinner at 1am, and the place was packed.  Again, most everybody there seemed drunk, and there were more costumes everywhere, including the Snow White that wore a costume I'm positive I never saw in any Disney cartoon, and a Jasmine with her very stoned Aladdin.  We got back on the freeway and headed home, and finally arrived back at our apartment nine and a half hours after our departure.  I would say never again, but I know I'm too cheap to pay for the toll bridge and the parking, and previous bart trips have been totally uneventful, so the truth is that we'll try this again some other time.  Lady luck was just not on our side last night, but if nothing else it was interesting.  Next time I'm bringing my camera.