Long TIme Coming

OK.  I know it has been way too long since my last actual post.  Between going out of town for helping with my sister's wedding and catching the plague that has been passed around the city recently, I didn't work so much.  I had myself convinced that I hadn't gotten sick this season because being in the cab with all the different people and all their different germs exposed me just enough to build up resistance and I was immune.  Well, I made it through most of the cold season, but then it hit me.  Hard.  It was bad.  I can't remember the last time I felt so horrible.  It was bad enough that I went to the doctor about it, and anyone who knows me, knows how big of a deal that is.  I almost never go to the doctor unless it's serious.

After making a full recovery, I worked last Sunday evening.  I got a car early on, and that was probably where my luck ended.  This car was a nightmare from the beginning.  Before I even left the garage, I had to bring the car into the shop.  The wipers didn't work and the front tire was flat.  And not just a little flat.  All the way flat.  The guys fixed it up quickly and I was on my way.

My car up on the lift before I even got to leave the garage.  This was how my day started, and how it stayed.

 I started at JFK, ready to get going when I got out of my car in the taxi lot.  The tire they had just fixed was going flat again.  I called my garage and they said they were sending someone out to me with a new tire.  By the time he got to me, I had lost my place in line.  Also, he just brought me a new tire and didn't plan on actually helping me.  So i had to leave the lot, giving up on the airport entirely, and head out with my new tire to try and find a tire shop to fix it for me.  By the time I managed to get it all fixed and make it into the city, it was 7pm.  So not only had I lost out on an airport fare, it was now on the later end of the busy time in the city.

After all of that, the city was dead.  And I mean really dead.  There was still enough snow on the ground from the snowstorm that people didn't go out.  Even with Fashion Week going on, there was nobody out.  I struggled just to be able to pay my lease and gas.  I ended up staying out way later than I normally would just to put a few measly bucks in my pocket.  Between how slow it was, dealing with the un-plowed snow on the ground and the beginnings of a migraine, it was just awful.  I haven't had a day this bad since the first day I worked ever.  It almost wasn't even worth it to work at all!

After heading to Brooklyn on a fare, I stopped in a bar to use the restroom.  They had this old timey phone in the bathroom to go along with the antique style, chain flush toilet(not pictured)

Thankfully, I worked this Sunday and Monday, and it more than made up for last week's horribleness.  Sunday night was great.  It was a holiday weekend, so Sunday was almost a bonus Saturday.  Because a lot of people didn;t have work the next day, there were lots more people out and about later in the evening.  Also working in my favor was the weather.  It was cold and windy.  And I mean really cold.  And that there is a good thing for a taxi driver.  When it is cold, but otherwise nice out, people still go out, but they don't want to walk more than a few blocks.

I found that people were pretty friendly overall the whole night.  Had more than a few who took interest in what I do, which is always cool.  I had an Australian rugby player in my car.  His team had just gotten to go to New Orleans where they had their own float at Mardi Gras before they flew up to NYC for a game.  I thought that was really neat.

At one point in the night, I got a fare out to Brooklyn.  As the guy was getting out of the cab, a small group of folks came running over to get in.  They weren't going far(just to DUMBO), but it was a fun ride.  I was offered french fries and had a good laugh with them.  Also, It's always nice to get another fare when you get taken out of the city on a busy night.

Sunset as I headed towards Times Square.  It was much prettier in person...

Last night was decent too.  Nothing too exciting to report.  It was really busy early on which was good because after 11, it got really dead.  I drove around for two hours empty at one point.  Finally I had gotten a fare to Greenpoint.  After that I didn't think it would be worth going all the way back into the city just to cruise around empty again and then have to head back home, so I drove around Greenpoint and Williamsburg for a little bit before catching a group of guys from Australia to go back to their hotel in the Park Slope area.  I took that as a sign that being that close to my garage meant it was time to head home.  Thankfully, because of how busy it was earlier in the night, the slow down of business didn't hurt me too bad, and I still had an above average night.

I have another post brewing.  While driving around yesterday, there was an ad on the radio which played many many times about a spot on the WPIX11 11 o'clock news about cabbies and basically how we try and get over on people.  I have a lot of issues with this, and will get to that a little later.  But I think that needs it's own post.  So, stay tuned.

Oof!

Okay.  I know it has been forever and a day since my last post.  I just got home from another long night.  I promise promise promise, I am going to write a proper post very soon.  Stay tuned!

They Can't ALL Be Winners

I worked this evening.  I got to the garage around my usual time and waited until almost 5pm for my car today.  I guess everyone is back from their vacations.  I wouldn't have minded waiting so much except for the fact of how cold it was.  The waiting room at the garage is warmer than outside, but not by much.  At least one of my fellow driver friends was nice and we waited in his car for a little while with the heat on.

I started out at JFK.  It was a short wait there to get dispatched to a terminal.  Thankfully, I got an easy fare.  It wasn't Manhattan, but it was a part of Brooklyn I am very familiar with, and it put me in good position to shoot into the city after dropping him off.

Once I got into Manhattan, I was headed up 3rd Ave. when I picked up a man going uptown.  We got to talking.  He was originally from Glasgow, so I told him about my time that I spent there.  Basically our conversation covered all things Scottish.  Seriously a delightful trip.  And I told him I had a few friends over there who would be excited to hear I had a Glaswegian in my car.  So, thanks Colin for being awesome!

Later on, I picked up a fellow on the Upper West Side.  He was just a curmudgeon.  From what I gathered from his phone conversation, he had just had a bad game of basketball.  He also complained about how slow this cab ride was to whomever he was speaking with(because the two blocks of construction got in the way).  Then when we were almost at his destination, he tells me how it was taking so long and how I went the bad way, when he had about 70 blocks to tell me whatever way he would like to go.  If you don't speak up and tell me you want a certain route, I am going to take the route I think is best.  And maybe I think that is best because I just was on the other option of a street and it was WORSE!  So, sorry you had a shitty teammate on you basketball team, but don't catch a 'tude with me for you not telling me what you want!  He still gave me a decent tip, but then slammed my door when he got out.  So confusing.

I picked up a girl near Port Authority to go to the Upper East Side.  She was super rad.  We reminisced about the big blackout back in I think, 2002.  We complained about landlords.  And she told me she wasn't expecting heat in her apartment when she got in, so she said she was going to be enjoying a bottle of wine until she was warm.  I hope that worked out for her.

At the end of my night, I was headed back to my garage.  On Flatbush Ave, I see a guy who looked like he was headed in my direction, so I picked him up.  He wanted to go to Bay Ridge.  A bit out of the way for me, but its a good ride, so I took it.  This guy was a little on the tipsy side and obnoxious.  He asked me the same questions multiple times because he forgot he already asked them.  When we arrived at his destination, he then tells me he has no money.  Seriously.  I told him I could take credit, but he didn't have that either.  He told me to come to his restaurant where he worked tomorrow and he would give me $100.  Yeah.  Right, buddy.  I told him to get out and forget it.  Funny, because we just had had a conversation about how karma is a bitch.  It's a shame that I had to end my night on that sour note.  So, if anyone eats at Azalea Ristorante, tell the manager he owes me $100!

Other than that, things were uneventful.  Very few talkers tonight.  At least I had a good night, money wise.  Because of the cold, nobody wanted to walk anywhere, so that means lots of taxi business!  I stayed out pretty late, so now I am pooped.  It is time for me to curl up with a kitty or two and pass out.

You Take The Good, You Take The Bad...........

Between a stomach bug, having my kitchen floors re-done, bachelorette party planning and a million other things, I didn't get to work for longer than I would like.  It had been almost a week and a half since my last shift by the time I got to the garage last Wednesday.  And even then I wasn't feeling 100%, so I pretty much had to force myself to work because, hey, bills need to be paid.

Going into Times Square

Last Wednesday was slow.  And I mean really slow.  I eventually made close to my average, but I had to really work for it, and I stayed out way late.  I think I worked about 14 hours that shift.  It was just rough all around.

I started my shift heading into the city with no intentions of hitting the airports.  But as soon as I made it over the bridge, I get a fare to JFK.  Okay, fine.  I wasn't planning on going there, but I went.  After dropping my passenger off at his terminal, I headed to the taxi lot where I had to wait for about an hour before getting to a terminal and picking up a fare.  I didn't realize until after we pulled away that this guy was just going a little way into Queens and I didn't get my "shorty ticket".  So after waiting there for all that time, I only got a small fare out of it and then had to trek all the way into Manhattan from Forest Hills empty.  By the time I made it into the city, it was almost 7:30(I started at 3:30) and I didn't have much to show for my time.

After killing myself just to make my lease, I was passing by my old store when I see a few of my old co-workers leaving.  I pulled over to say hi and offered them a ride home.  At that point I was annoyed with how slow the night was so I figured why not.  It was awesome to see them!  It really has been a while, so it was great to catch up.  Even if I wasn't making money, I had fun.  And I probably wouldn't have made much if I hadn't stopped for them.

Me with my old co-workers; Laura in the front with me and Mike and Corey in the back.

The rest of the night was just blah.  The city was dead.  All the bars seemed empty and nobody wanted a cab.  I seriously drove around empty for around an hour more than once.  My last fare, I think was my first repeat customer, although neither of us were sure.  But she seemed really familiar, and I have totally dropped the person she reminded me of at the same place in Red Hook.  So it was either a really striking similarity, or she was the same passenger.

After spending a few days relaxing in the woods up in Massachusetts over the weekend, I worked tonight.  What a contrast to last week!  This was my biggest night money-wise that I have had yet.  Over double my usual average.  The whole night was busy.  Between the football games, hockey and the fact that it's the Sunday before a holiday Monday, people were out and about and going places all night.

Gorgeous sunset over the JFK taxi lot

Once again, I didn't plan on going to the airport.  I had a short fare in Brooklyn before heading over the bridge to Manhattan.  My first fare in Manhattan took me to JFK.  I am starting to notice a trend! After dropping her off at the terminal, I headed to the taxi lot.  Even thought the lot was pretty full, the line moved quickly.  I was out of there in about 40 minutes.  I had a shorty fare first to just outside the airport, and was back in just a few minutes.  Easy money.  Because I had my shorty ticket, I didn't have to wait in the lot again, so I went right to my next terminal where I picked up a couple going to Manhattan.
Things were moving all night.  And then I picked up a pretty unassuming guy. Oh boy, I had no idea the character I had in my car.  He was very nice and told me I was a good driver and I was very laid back.  I said thanks and as he was about to get out of the car, he asked me if I would show him my "front porch".  For those of you who don't know, and I didn't until I had him clarify, "front porch" means boobs.  He wanted me to flash him.  I told him no, and thankfully he was considerate of my denial and laughed it off saying, "well, if you don't ask, it won't happen".  Very strange man.  But, after all that, he gave me a pretty generous tip.

Even though the night was super busy, people didn;t seem too chatty.  So other than Front Porch guy, I dont have much else to talk about.  It was a long shift, and I am pooped.  Its time for sleep. 

Oh!  and also, my Girly Cabbie business cards came in the mail.  Now I can share this blog with people without having to scribble the address on a piece of scrap paper.  Woo!

The Other Side of the Partition

Earlier today I had a thing I was attending in Manhattan.  It was all the way over by the East River, so instead of walking a million blocks or changing trains and buses a million times, I decided to take the subway to Union Square and then hop a taxi. 

I forgot what time of day it was, but it was 4pm, aka shift change.  So I was rather pleased when I  crossed Park Ave and a empty taxi was there at the light.  I hopped in and was delighted to have such an awesome driver.  First off, he knew where I had to go(which I will be honest, if someone got in my cab and gave me this address, I wouldn't have).  But this guy was a character!  Totally old school New York.  And he was also an actor, complete with his head shot taped to the back of the partition.  Totally fantastic. 

I confessed to also being a driver and we had a nice chat about driving.  The good and the bad.  Like me, he only drove part time.  He said he only worked a double shift on Sundays.  Neither of us have the energy or the ability to drive 6 12 hour shifts a week like a lot of drivers do. 

I am kicking myself now.  I wish I could remember this guys name(and if you are reading this, please!  tell me your name!) and I wish I had gotten a photo.  Seriously, dude.  Keep doing what you are doing!  You are what this city needs.

Sadly, my taxi on the way back to the train wasn't as cool.  He talked on his phone the whole time.  Eh, I guess not everyone can be as rad as myself or my new friend.

 • • •

In other news, I ordered some business cards today for the site.  I don't often tell my customers about the blog, but some of the awesome ones I do.  And I always end up scribbling the address on a piece of scrap paper.  Every single one of them says I should get cards.  So I did.  Can't wait for them to get here!

The new card!

Drivers Wanted

 I just watched a really interesting documentary about NYC Taxi drivers.  It follows a brand new driver and some very old timer drivers.  I relate to the new guy.  I remember my first day and not knowing how to work a meter.  Its scary, but you move on and figure it out!  And before you know it, its no biggie!  So, check it out!  It's only about an hour long and I really enjoyed it.

DRIVERS WANTED, A DOCUMENTARY

New Year, New Adventures!

So at this point, I am already three shifts into the new year.  I worked the day after New Years Day(I needed the one day to recover from New Years Eve).  It was an okay shift.  Nothing too exciting happened.  The next day I worked as well.

New year and ready to take on new adventures(or, the short version, "me behind the wheel")

I called up the JFK taxi hotline at the beginning of my shift to see if it was worth heading over there.  I didn't think it was, so I headed into the city.  I had started working early enough so I figured I would get a lot of the business other drivers missed when they went off duty around that time.  I managed to get into Manhattan and all the way up to around the 60's before I caught my first fare.  And wouldn't you know it, they wanted to go to JFK!  Somehow, in rush hour, we made it to the airport in pretty decent time.  Under an hour, for sure.  My passengers complimented me on getting them there so quickly(both verbally and with a nice tip).  So since I didn't waste a lot of time in traffic, my trip out to the airport was a pretty good thing.  Once I got out there, i took a look at the taxi lot.  It was pretty full, but looked like it was moving, so I got on the line.  I waited for about an hour, maybe a little less.  Which for as full as the lot was, really isn't too bad.  I finally got dispatched to Terminal 2.  I had never picked up there before, so navigating my way there was a little odd.

Once I got to the terminal, I had a passenger right away.  We didn't make it into the city quite as quickly as I had made it to the airport, but it wasn't too bad.  And we had a wonderful discussion the whole way.  He was a volunteer for the Red Cross from, I think he said, Kansas.  This was his second trip to the area since the hurricane.  He told me about all the work he had been doing and about all the others who came from all over the country to help out with the recovery.  It really warmed my heart to know that there are these kind people out there who drop their lives to come help out one of the countries' toughest areas when we actually need help.  When I dropped him off at his hotel, I made sure to thank him for the work that he does.

I gotta say, after that, nothing really interesting.  The city was pretty dead as a lot of tourists had left and a lot of New Yorkers hadn't returned from their vacations or were lying low recovering from the holidays.

I worked again this Sunday.  Much more interesting.  By this time, most people were back from the holidays, so there was more activity in the city.

Giant suspended snowflake on the intersection of 57th and 5th.  I love this thing and finally got close enough to it for a photo.

The shift started out pretty average.  I had quite a few fares early on, but they were all on the small side of things.  I was cruising Amsterdam when I picked up a woman to go farther uptown.  She was so nice!  We had a really nice conversation the whole way up about cabbie-ing.  She was genuinely interested in what I do so that was nice.  I told her about the blog too, so if you are reading, HELLO!  It was great to have you in the cab!  Seriously, even though I don't have many rude or mean customers, the ones who are genuinely interested and kind are pretty rare too.  After that, I was feeling a little more optimistic about the evening.

Things started picking up a little more as the night went on.  I ended up picking up a group of college aged kids who were so into themselves it made me laugh.  Seriously.  The extent of their conversation was which one of them had more "likes" on Instagram.  They also wanted to take the most ass-backwards way to their destination and only after tremendous traffic on their selected route would they listen to reason and let me take the proper way.  And after all their stupid requests, sitting in unnecessary traffic and having to listen to their vapid conversation, they gave me a measly $1 tip(on a $20 fare, which is 5% and crappy for those of you less mathematically inclined).  Because clearly none of them know what it was like to have to work for a living or put up with people like them for any amount of time.  I bet they went to my high school.

I picked up a guy to go to Queens after that.  Nothing really too interesting to say about that except this guy had an amazing voice.  He should do radio or something.  Maybe he does.  But it was one of those thick New York old school accents and a really deep and gruff voice.  Kinda hot, actually.  I also never saw the guy's face, which added to it I think. 

Later on, I was cruising around the village.  I was driving up University when I see someone hailing me in front of the bowling alley.  I pull over and so does another car behind me.  I see someone getting into the other cab and, annoyed, said something like "Or NOT!" out the window as I was about to pull away.  But then someone else came and grabbed me before I sped off.  She needed to go to Brooklyn and to an area I was very familiar with.  So our conversation didn't have to involve step by step directions.  Instead it went towards weddings.  She had mentioned her upcoming wedding, and her experience at Kleinfeld.  My little sister is a bride to be, so I had lots to discuss with her.  Before you knew it, we were at her destination.  I even managed to get another fare in Brooklyn before getting back to Manhattan.

As I was on St. Marks, I get stopped outside Crif Dogs by a young couple.  They wanted to go to Hoboken, NJ.  I looked up the fare in my little flat rate book(first time I got to use this thing!) and told them the rate.  They agreed and hopped in.  They were super friendly and we chatted the whole way into Jersey.  And as they directed me to their hotel, I got to see the sights of Hoboken, which is actually a much cuter area than I expected.  Also, lots of night life.  Seriously, a bar on every corner.  Who knew!?  I am not allowed to pick up any fares in Jersey, so as soon as I dropped them off I rushed back into the city.  And i got really lucky too.  Almost as soon as I got out of the tunnel in Manhattan, I caught a fare to way up on the Upper West Side.

On my way back downtown, I was at a red light on Broadway somewhere in the 80's.  A cop car pulled up next to me.  The cops did a double take before rolling down their window to tell me what a rare sight I was.  We all had a chuckle and I waved at them before they took off at the green light.

It was late and I caught that one last fare I wanted to Queens(Brooklyn would have been good too).  Two guys who had just closed up their restaurant in Alphabet City and were too tired to take the subway.  One got out just over the bridge.  After he got out, the remaining fellow and I had a nice conversation and I told him about a restaurant I liked that was just around the corner from his place.  And he, unlike the spoiled brats from before, gave me a nice tip.  People who work in the service industry know how to tip because they know what its like to NOT get a tip when you bust your butt!

It was late and I decided to head back to the garage.  I hopped on the BQE and headed into Brooklyn.  When I was headed up Flatbush ave in Park Slope, a guy had his arm out for a cab.  He looked like he was headed in my general direction, so I pulled over and he got in.  Turned out, he needed to go only a few blocks from my garage and was super nice and thankful that I stopped.  I don't always grab fares when I am on my way back to the garage, but i was in a good mood and figured why the heck not.  It was one of those cab rides that end with a handshake.  Those don;t happen often, but sometimes when you have a good rapport with a passenger, its the only way to end things.

After dropping him off, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to my garage where I called it a night.  What started out as just a mediocre night ended up being a really good shift, both monetarily and people wise.  Totally made up for some of the slower shifts I had last week.  I am glad I kicked my own ass into going to work that night.