39. A Night I’d Like to Forget

Well, this was a night I’d like to forget. It’s been a week I’d like to forget. Having personal problems that make me want to… they just make me want to… I don’t know. I tried to fix them but looks like they’re not getting resolved any time soon. But that’s a story for another blog.

Instead of going into my personal issues, let me share about some of the rides tonight. Most passengers pushed it to the brink of the wait time. Many were not at the locations they had put into the app and expected me to find them. Many got in smelling like something inhuman. Don’t think I gave any passengers a five star rating and I’m guessing they didn’t give me any. They certainly didn’t give me any tips. 

There was the man who texted me “he would be out in a minute” and by “a minute”, he meant ten. I should have left after the seven minute mark, but he had texted me. Then he got in my car and smelled like he had bathed in curry. So much Lysol was used. 

There was the fitness instructor I picked up from his gym who commented that I could use his services and offered to whip me into shape, but I’m not sure exactly what shape, since he and I shared similar shapes, which is to both say we were both very doughy, as in our shapes were formed by fried dough. 

There was the drunk I picked up from a bar who took seven minutes to close his tab and got into the car reeking of beer and cigarettes and asked me to stop at a Circle K on the way so he could get a bottle of water and I obliged him and then he took ten minutes and forgot he was getting water and instead got a twelve pack of PBR, a “little hair of the dog” for the morning.

There were the two 40 something year old women who were half a mile from the location they put into the app and called me to come pick them up at the “correct” location. They had a drunk 20 something year old man with them who were promising him the time of his life, and wondering if he could keep up with them. I dropped them at another bar so they could get him drunker, I guess.

There were the three Millennials I picked up from a downtown bar who also took their time saying goodbye to everyone at the bar.  The one sitting behind me silently mocking my musical choices to the other passengers, thinking I couldn’t see him, or not caring that I could and then these three then went off about how Boomers and Gen Xers could all go fuck themselves because they were a bunch of straight assholes who fucked up the planet and they laughed and laughed. The one behind me commented how a “taxi driver” probably wouldn’t get what they were saying, so they shouldn’t worry about their comments.

There was the exit gate to the apartment complex that would not open, no matter how close I got, in fact, I got close enough to start pushing it open, but I did not want to break it. So, I had to climb over the fence and punch in the code to open the gate and run back to my car to drive through it before it closed again. I am not a runner anymore. But I am happy to say I managed to get through before it closed.

And having been lucky enough to get out of that complex, I then called it a night.