After a long night at the office and a jonesing to walk the streets of DC, I parted ways with my cube around 2 a.m. this morning. Immediately after Obama was declared president elect, an uproar of crazies, Democrats and Obama supporters stormed Penn Ave. Horns were honking, people were screaming, celebrating and singing “Nah, nah, nah, nah; nah, nah, nah, nah; hey, hey, hey; goooooodbyeeeee” to Bush from outside the black, rod iron gates of his residence.
And obvi I wanted to check it out. I’m a natural journalist.
It was quite the setting. I love watching history in the making, but I also wanted to find a caband go home so I could come back to work 7 hours later. Anyway, most of the cabs were busy shuffling relishers to and fro’ The White House, severely decreasing my chances of getting some shut eye. About 15 blocks later, on the outerbanks of a familiar George Washington University dorm, “City Hall,”a lovely Cabbie picked me up. (Now, I will admit, I didn’t ask him his name, which contradicts my earlier post, but I did not call him Cabbie or Cab Driver or yell at him.)
He wouldn’t let me get in the cab until I told him where I was going, i.e. wanted to make sure my fare would be worth the ride, but I guess he figured Glover Park was worthy of a lift. While shuffling me home, he asked me if I had been at TWH and did I vote for Obama. I humored him and said I think its great so many people are excited about the election, especially 3 hours after he concluded his acceptance speech.
To put last night’s business into perspective Mr. Cabbie compared the night to Halloween and New Year’s Eve–Neither of which compared he said.
Cab Driver: “You see, for Halloween people are drunk and throw up in my cab. They mean and yell and drunk.”
Me: I have no idea what you’re talking about. (Did I act like that last weekend?)
CD: “And for New Year’s the guys are mean. They drunk and tip bad. You see, the guy is mad because he has no girl or his girl go home with another guy.”
Me: Um…Yeah. (Again I don’t know what you mean)
CD: “You know. The guy is mad because he don’t get any. If he got some maybe he not be mean then tip me. But some girls don’t want to give any. Then guy mean.”
Me: Oh. (I see where you’re going with this, but am not going to elaborate for fear of where this conversation is headed)
CD: “But tonight people so nice and excited and talk to me. They not drunk. They drink but they not drunk. This one guy gave me $40 on a $8 fare. I say, ‘Hey man you give me $40, and he say yeah man I know. I’m excited.’”
So by now we’re at my house and my fare is $8.25. I gave him $9 and got out of the cab. I get paid by the hour and that cab ride was definitely not worth a good chuck of my hourly wage and the conversation topic was a little awkward.
As I was walking up the steep stairs at my house I started thinking, did that Cabbie just compare Obama’s win to getting lucky on New Year’s eve? If so, it’s going to be a long four years.
2 Comments
November 5, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Wait, so I’m slightly confused by this cabbie’s logic. When he says NYE riders are bad tippers because they aren’t getting any and Obama election night riders are good tippers because they’re happy, should it also be assumed that Obama election night riders are also getting lucky? Or is this too much of a stretch? I ask because the Urban Dictionary’s word of the day today is “Obama Baby” (i.e., a child born Aug. 5, 2009). I was previously unaware that election night action was such a common practice…
November 5, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Excellent point Ms. H. I was not aware of today’s Urban Dictionary word but the two do seem to go hand in hand.