Me and Sam wait thirty minutes before the Whale-22 shows. And when it does, the Unicorn-19 appears on the opposite corner. “We’re taking that 19,” I tell Sam. “Fuck this 22, the whole fucking city will be on it.”

At Civic Center she takes the long escalator down to BART and I wait for an N. Magically, it shows up in only three minutes. I sit next to a puddle of urine and am happy knowing no one will sit next to me. Get off at Cole and a bus is waiting to take me to my door.

Good on you, Muni. Strange that on time N’s and 43s can make me forget all about 30-minute late 22s. But we all have short-term memory problems here in the city.