I have had many interesting encounters with cab drivers in my life … for some reason, they just like to talk to me and tell me all their problems. Usually they’re from Nigeria or Afghanistan or Bangladesh and within 2 seconds of me getting in the cab, they start to chat me up and tell me how much they miss their homeland, and how their dear mother at home worries about them, and etc. etc. Maybe it’s something about my face.<\/p>\n
But I need to describe what literally just happened. I will put it down word for word.<\/p>\n
I got in a cab. Told him where I was going. At that moment, Billy Joel’s “Lights went out on Broadway” came on. I love that song and I have a very specific happy memory attached to that song … so I guess I visibly showed my happiness, and he saw it through the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
And here is what he proceeded to say to me – in a barely understandable Middle Eastern accent:<\/p>\n
“Are you Irish?”<\/p>\n
“Uh … well, of descent anyway. Yes.”<\/p>\n
“You are a very beautiful woman.”<\/p>\n
“Uh … wow … thanks!”<\/p>\n
“You are a very beautiful woman. Very beautiful. You get hurt easily. You are very open. And you have a good heart. You have such a good heart … that you get along with everybody. You get. Along. With. Everybody!”<\/p>\n
Suddenly it was as though I was getting my palms read. I did not say a word. He didn’t let me get a word in edgewise.<\/p>\n
“You know what your only problem is? Your only problem is your attitude. You get mad very easily. Very easily. And when you get mad? I don’t want to talk to you.” (Suddenly, the whole thing started striking me as absolutely hysterical … it was as though he was about to get really mad at me … as though his fantasy of me was completely real – and he was about to start rattling off his pet peeves about my imaginary personality) “You always want things to go your way.” (This one I nearly balked at. That’s not true at all. But … I decided to not interrupt his monologue. It was too fascinating.) “But in spite of all of that … you are very beautiful, and you are going to have a very interesting life. Even though you get hurt too easily. Everyone who meets you loves you.”<\/p>\n
As well as random cab drivers it would seem.<\/p>\n
I actually got a little verklempt when he started waxing poetic about my good heart.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what it is about my face … or who I am … but this encounter with the cab driver is not an anomaly. Nobody has ever started addressing me and my imaginary personality so directly before … but I have had times with cab drivers where, when he finally gets me to where I want to go, we sit in the car for a bit longer, chatting about the beauty of Bangladesh or whatever.<\/p>\n
It’s hysterical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have had many interesting encounters with cab drivers in my life … for some reason, they just like to talk to me and tell me all their problems. Usually they’re from Nigeria or Afghanistan or Bangladesh and within 2 … Continue reading