Saturday, January 13, 2007

cabbie on the street

I feel like I’ve already written this post but looking over the ol’ blog site, I realize that it’s just a subject that’s been rolling around the grey matter for awhile. since my official readership has gone up from 7 to 8 recently, i thought it was time to write SOMETHING, and this became pertinent again last night...

It’s becoming more and more obvious to me, that the only person in the world I’m capable of lying to is my cab driver, and I am clearly a whiz at it… While attempts at evasion with any other person ends in me blushing, laughing or immediately coming clean, every single time I’m in a cab for more than 5 minutes, all statements I verbalize (save for “my destination, please”) is a blatant lie.

There are really only two questions taxi drivers will ask me, aside from where I’m going [and occasionally, if I wanna go on a date, it seems]. One is my name --I’m sure dudes never get asked this, but apparently cabbies need to address me with familiarity--, and the other is my occupation. I’ve been Tanya, Tara, Maya, and Shay. I’ve been a doctor, a lawyer, a kindergarten teacher and an urban planner. Hey, why not ? It’s kinda fun being someone you’re not for, like, 12 minutes…

About six months ago, I got myself into a bit of a jam; I told my driver I was an optometrist and boy, did he have a lot of questions. I was actually able to answer a lot of them with the knowledge I picked up from UW optometry students (when I went through every eye exam ever invented) during my tenure there. He told me that the glasses he was wearing [y’know… the ones he was using to help him see the road/other vehicles/pedestrians as he drove me home] were purchased at a drug store off the rack, and that he’d never ever had his eyes checked. This shocked me, as his fare, but I tried to react like an actual optometrist, and I urged him to get examined. He, of course, asked me for a business card so he could come to my practice. Uhhhhh…oh…. yeahh.... about that.... But the lies kept rolling and I fudged some excuse about being fresh out, and that he should go to his GP to get a recommend, which he was all gung ho to do. And all of a sudden, lying felt GOOD !! I could better the world with deviousness !!!

Last night I was Kate. A painter. And I’d put back a few pints and was pretty beat, but I’m fairly certain I remember the crazy cabbie saying "you have beautiful eyes, Kate," which was nothing short of amusing to me...

I had him drop me off two blocks from home…

Yep.

1 Comments:

Blogger m@ said...

ha. that is good. i have to try that. except i cant use kate, cause im a dude and all, maybe chet. i can be a chet. or bo. like "bo knows baseball"

:)

11:15 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home