It is a cool, crisp evening as I wait in the car with my family for the 6 o'clock ESCAPE bus to pull into the Huntington parking lot to take me back to Binghamton University.

After a 40-minute delay, the bus majestically pulls into the parking lot close to the Cutler Furniture store. I kiss my mom and dad goodbye and after waiting patiently behind a rather lengthy line of students, I finally make it onto the bus. Cheerfully, I hand over my red ticket stub to the bus captain, and with my pocket book and laptop in hand, scan eagerly for a vacant seat, never for a moment suspecting the hellish fate in store.

Suddenly, the line in the narrowed aisle of the bus has stopped moving and the awful truth becomes apparent: There are no more seats left for myself and the six other people standing - ESCAPE has overbooked and sold 55 tickets for 49 seats. After much confusion, involving the bus captain making several calls amidst the noises of confusion emanating from the passengers, the bus pulls out of the parking lot at around 7:15 p.m., leaving us, the Seat-less, to fend for ourselves with the understanding that in about an hour we would catch up to the Manhattan ESCAPE bus and be amongst the Sitting Class.

I had no idea the nightmare would only get worse, as the Huntington ESCAPE bus wound up missing the Manhattan ESCAPE bus by an hour due to traffic.

During those four hours of alternating between standing, sitting and sliding (due to the many random jolts courtesy of the bus driver), I could not help but wonder, how could such a thing happen? While I realize that mathematics is a weak area in American culture, so much to the point that math teachers are very high in demand, this was not exactly a complicated calculus or algebraic problem that needed to be solved. This was merely a counting problem. I am an English major and Spanish minor with no affinity for mathematics, but I do know that if there are only 49 seats, then you sell only 49 tickets, not 55.

Even airlines, despite their issues with overbooking and delays, at least have the decency to offer miniature bags of white, salty Tostitos chips.

The next day I went to the ESCAPE office in hopes of receiving a refund. Instead, I wound up receiving a combination of good and bad news. The good news: The reason for the lack of seats was not due to a numerical calculation by the people selling ESCAPE tickets. The bad news: It was a result of the bus driver accidentally taking the 49-seated bus instead of the 55-seated bus.

While I did get a 25 percent discount for my next trip through ESCAPE, the fact that it took two weeks for them to get back to me does not ebb the sting. I am a junior now, and have loyally been taking ESCAPE buses since my freshman year. In my freshman year (once upon a time), the ESCAPE bus tickets cost only $40 round trip. There would be advertisements posted days in advance, and the bus would go from community to community on the way back to school.

Now, tickets have been jacked up to $60 round trip. There were no advertisements, and trying to reach ESCAPE by telephone was a long and painful feat I underwent numerous times with little result. And when the bus did arrive on campus, the driver dumped everyone near College-in-the-Woods' Mohawk Hall and let us fend for ourselves.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the ESCAPE bus system has gone downhill significantly and desperately needs to be fixed. It is a fact that, after four hours of floor time, I have come to terms with as very hard, very cold and very much lacking in white, salty Tostitos chips.