First 3 hours: 3 trips, but all to the Blades game with Shannon Tweed, which backed up traffic an amazingly long way, so it was still decent money.
D-Bag #1: A fellow who was angry about me not taking Circle Drive to Idylwyld. I'm looking at the Google Maps as I type this, the route I took was approximately 700m shorter than his route, and I knew this...but he still gave me a grumpy demeanor. Instead of saying anything about my route being better, I gave him one of his $5 bills back at the end of the trip and apologized for taking the wrong turn. Why? Because I'm a classy guy, that's why.
D-Bag #2: A guy who didn't want to take the $10 cab back to his place and threatened to drive home drunk (extremely drunk). I instead told him that I'd use the tip his friends gave me ($3) to drive him home. Why? Because I'm classy and I'm awesome.
D-Bag #3: At the end of night, I'm listening to my Grizzly Bear CD, a band that I wasn't sure if anyone knew. However, a girl in the group for my last fare of the night did know them. She told me to crank it up and proceeded to have a make-out session with her boyfriend. Seeing this, I decide to drive smoothly along what it otherwise a bumpy Taylor Street. How do I get repaid for this? A $1 tip. Honestly, if you're going to tip that little, just don't tip at all. That's less than the obligatory nice tip and it was even a good ride for them.
I did have my CDs though, so it was a good night. It was made better by the 65ish year old man who was rocking out to 'Mick and the boys'.
Best moment of the evening: I'm driving down Broadway and a man runs into the street and stares at my approaching taxi. I slow down and stop. He runs at my cab, jumps on the hood, and proceeds to yell at me: 'You can't just hit a pedestrian like that, I'm going to sue you!' He then walks to my window. I roll it down and he offers me a handful of his Chili/Lime almonds that he is snacking on. I politely refuse, but he insists so I finally accept. They were actually quite good. We wave and go our separate ways.
At around 3 AM a message comes on my computer that a fellow cab driver has hit the emergency button and we are told where his approximate location is, so I go racing off. Getting robbed, getting stabbed....these are things that I don't really think about, but they are always on the back of my mind. I don't know why he hit the emergency button but I'm going as fast as I can to get there. I'm the first other cab on the scene and as it turns out he just went home and took a nap, must've hit the emergency button my mistake. Anticlimactic, I know....but as I'm waiting there, about 5-6 other cabs show up to check it out. For the first time as a cab driver, I actually felt like part of a 'brotherhood of cabbies'. If that guy would've actually been in trouble, we would've beaten whatever shitbird was causing trouble. If I ever get into trouble, there'll be guys there to help me out. It's a nice feeling.
Speaking of other cabbies, I got to have a conversation with another cabbie while waiting outside Amigo's. I've seen this guy a couple times. Instead of the dress clothes that we are supposed to wear, he wears jeans, a sweater and some gold chains around his neck. He completes the look with slicked back hair and a pretty solid mustache. He will henceforth be known as Mr. Cool. We talked about how it was going to be busy next week because of welfare checks. He was surprised that I didn't know about the timing of welfare checks, but I told him that I was too white and middle class to know about such things. /racism
Committed boyfriend of the night: A guy takes a $35 cab ride to see his girl home and then goes back to the bar. She cries almost the whole way and they spend a solid 4-5 minutes at the door saying goodbye. On the way back to the bar, he tells me how he hates dealing with her crap because she's so young (19). He said that I would see all girls that age as immature when I become his age (25). He sticks with her because 'she is so fine'. We eventually talked about entrepreneurship and owning our own businesses one day.
Tip Guidelines (because I've had so many people ask me)
-this is what you're telling me with your tip
$0.00 - I'm a complete asswipe who doesn't deserve to live.
$0.01-1.99 - I'm insulting you. I'm putting in the effort to tip but making an effort to tip poorly.
$2.00 - 3.50 - Obligatory tip. I'm just being proper
$3.51 - 5.00 - You've actually done something to deserve this, you're an okay guy.
$5.01 - 8.00 - I'm sorry about that / You're awesome!
$8.01 - 11.00 - I'm a drunk cougar and I think you're cute
$11.01+ - I'm REALLY sorry about that
Hope that helps....
Tonight I learned that in Kenya, it's impolite to not have someone sit shotgun in a taxi.
On one last note, I must have been looking extra young tonight, because I got more comments on that than usual.
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