This last week I went back into NYC for the first time since the pandemic started. I live about 40 minutes away in New Jersey and trips into the city, as well as working there sometimes, have been a pretty regular part of my life since I was a teenager.

There’s no lost love between me and NJ Transit.

The best way to deal with the smelly, overpacked trains that don’t always leave when you’re hoping they will is with headphones in and the world drowned out.

I was also on a bit of an adventure to a part of Brooklyn I’d never been to before, so my trusty Google maps were used for a while that day.

And as I waited for the friend I was meeting up with, I had Spotify to keep me company while I sat on a bench, overlooking the view of Manhattan across the water.

We were attending an event that I had the tickets for on my phone.

I threw my backup battery in my purse that day and set out. As the battery dwindled down to 10% while listening to Spotify on the waterfront, I pulled out the battery and plugged in to juice up.

And it was dead.

That was the end of Spotify. I had to make sure I could still access our event tickets. I figured I could find a place selling the bricks to plug into the wall before heading home so I could access my NJ Transit app with my return trip ticket stored on it.

On my way back to Penn Station, I had my fingers crossed that I would have enough time to buy a paper ticket and possibly find one of those blocks to plug my charger cable into. Fortunately (?), I had just missed the train, so I would be sitting around Penn Station for the better part of an hour. I figured I could easily find one of those stupid cube plugs.

I went into the store next to the Dunkin Donuts and the guy informed me they were 50% off – down to $22.00.

No. Way.

I walked over to the Rite Aid, they didn’t have any. I looked in all the different stands, nada.

$22.00 looked a little better.

But for what really? I had my paper ticket and I could handle being bored.

I refused to pay the $22.00.

It got me thinking though.

How much would I pay to charge my phone?

I figured it would be $5 and maybe even $10 as I started the cube hunt, and I was willing to pay it if I found a cube plug in that range.

$5-10 to alleviate about an hour and a half of boredom.

$22.00 was asking too much.

(FUN FACT: I totally zoned out on the train and missed my stop. It wound up being a 4 hour commute home. I could’ve taken an Uber at the one stop too far but my phone was dead so I just had to wait for the next train and take it back one stop. $22.00 for 4 hours… would’ve been worth it. If only I had a crystal ball earlier that evening.)

I also started thinking, when would $22 not have been too much? If my phone had died on the train on the way there? And I needed it for directions and access to our tickets?

I probably would’ve grumbled but paid the $22, right?

I’m aware that especially the GPS aspect is a big deal to me. How does anyone find anything anymore without a functioning cell phone? How did we use to do this??

What would you have done? When would you spend the $22?