Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Perfect Day for a Cab Ride

Or two cab rides, to be exact, because that's basically all I did today is ride in a cab. Of course, this is not normal. Today was "getting my room in order" day. The boxes my parents shipped out to me arrived today, so I went to pick them up at my roommate's work (they were sent there in case I wasn't home during the day). Here's where cab #1 comes in. There were five boxes, all of which I could not carry alone, nor drag down the streets, down the stairs, and into the subway car. A cab, it was. And an expensive cab ride, too. Manhattan to Brooklyn is not cheap. Getting around in Manhattan is not that cheap either, but it's not as bad as going from one borough to the other. And apparently I like to get to know my cab drivers. I ended up chatting a bit with each of them. Driver #1 is from Haiti, works part time as a driver, full time as a school bus driver, and just became a preacher and started a church! I failed to get the name of it, though. He was super nice. Driver #2 is from the Dominican Republic. He has two kids and lots of family that live in here now. I spoke my pathetic Spanish with him, but prefaced it with "I only studied Spanish for four months...not enough to know it well! Entiendo mejor que hablo."

Oh, and both drivers have lived in New York City for about 24-25 years. I told them both that I was going on one week, and they both said, in the same exact tone of voice (which I'm sure you can imagine), "One week?!" They got a kick out of that. :)

Cab #2 took me home from picking up a free IKEA 6-drawer dresser, given to me by a friend (thank you, Suvi!) I love it, it's perfect. It was just the finishing touch I needed to make my room complete. I put up the wall art, and wah-la! I have a wonderfully furnished and decorated room. See for yourself!
The cat likes the dresser, too!
I just figured out probably why I was so chatty with the cabbies. NO ONE TALKS TO EACH OTHER ON THE SUBWAY! You just don't do it. You do it, everyone knows you're new in town. You only talk if you are with people you know. It's kinda crazy, being surrounded by tons of people every day, but not talking to any of them. Sometimes I am tempted. I smile at babies sometimes, when their guardians aren't looking.

1 comment:

  1. Liz!! I love your blog!!! You better keep up with it! :)

    Love you.

    ReplyDelete