December 24, 2020 2:13 a.m.
Three short vignettes from my Christmas Eve-eve (that's December 23, if you didn't know.)
I picked up a young woman and drove her to work her midnight shift job at a 24 hour gym in south city. The ride itself was uneventful, and she was a pretty great passenger - friendly, good conversation, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary, though, as (thankfully) the majority of my rides are like this. However, as she got out of the car, she said, "thanks for the bottle of water!"
It took about three blocks for it to register that I didn't have any bottles of water for my passengers in the back seat. So I guess someone must have left a beverage back there, which she mistook as a courtesy I had extended to her.
For what it's worth, the passenger before her definitely struck me as the type of guy who would drink straight gin out of a Dasani bottle, so either it was water, and the $2 tip she left me was out of appreciation for that, or it was something else, and the $2 tip she left was out of appreciation for making her shift way more interesting.
I picked up a man from BAR:PM, one of a handful of increasingly popular gay bars in my neighborhood. The passenger I picked up made it clear he had gone out looking to hook up, and had no luck. He repeatedly asked if I had a wife or girlfriend... or a boyfriend... or a husband... I answered no to everything and finally had to explain that I don't judge who people are into, but I'm into women. He apologized and was quiet... and then rebooted, because he was blackout drunk, and we had to have the same conversation over again.
When we got to his destination, he tried to leave his phone in the car so I'd have to come back. I made sure he took it with him.
I'm flattered that I was your blackout crush of convenience, but dude, I'm not into you. AND I'm trying to work. Ugh. Men.Later in the evening, I picked up a couple in Belleville. They were going to... another part of Belleville. Did you know that Belleville is huge? Well, it is. It's enormous. Anyway, about five minutes into their 15 minute trip across town, the girl started yelling at the guy because apparently he was talking to someone she didn't want him talking to, and in order to keep her - his girlfriend - from interfering, he had some other girl lock her in a bathroom for like half an hour.
How they didn't break up right then and there is beyond me.
Also, possibly related, the guy in question made a point of telling me that he studied jazz bass in college.
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