Up early. The sun cannot be seen. Trying to make up from lost time from Monday and Tuesday. My daily quota was half of what it should be. Stupid glitch. The glitch wasn’t showing my earnings for the day. Couldn’t gauge where I was. As I rumbled down the freeway in my vehicle, the rain was pelting down. Cool my car gets a free wash. I’m going to see if I can get a customer at the first flight to Bellingham from Seattle. I sat there for an hour an a half. Some of that time was me being there before everyone else. Nope nothing. Damn. Wasted my time. Fine you win this round airport. I went south to to Frederick Meyer. Ping!
Finally a customer. Tristan. His car had broken down on the way to work. It was his alternator. Poor bugger. He works as a joiner at carpentry business. Honestly I thought he said he was a jointer at first. As in someone who sells marijuana. I mean it’s legal in Washington afterall. Really hate the smell of it to be honest. That skunky gross smell. Yuck. Then it dawned on me that’s not what he said at all. Oh Joiner! He said points on what that is. I said something to do with construction or carpentry. Boom. I got the points. Most people think I’m a stupid uber driver. I’m not. I’m an archaeologist. I don’t know everything, but I can certainly tell you a thing or two about certain things. I dropped him off and tipped me more than I expected. Maybe it was my points for guessing roughly what he did? Either way I was thankful and asked him if he needed a lift home later. No unfortunately. Getting a lift back from a colleague.
Next passenger Infiniti. What a cool name! I told her as much when I picked her up. She thanked me and said do you sign with the Infinity symbol? Unfortunately she doesn’t. What a shame. Missed opportunity. Her nickname was Fin. Not as cool.
Sadie followed, wait a minute. I had a Sadie in my car on Friday night last week. Sure enough it was the same person. She had crutches the last time I saw her. She apparently broke her leg doing cheerleading. Damn, sounded painful. She did a tumble incorrectly and sustained a rather painful injury. I could only imagine the agony. I asked if there are any fellows doing cheerleading. Yes apparently they have one guy. He is stronger than the girls when lifting them up. That sounded like a fair statement. As I dropped her off I told her to get well soon and wished her the very best.
Dylan the man who entered my car speaking on his mobile phone. I had to turn my music down. Better not blast the guy out the car. Oh look he’s done with his conversation on his phone. G’day mate how are you doing today? …Hi there, I’m good thanks, you? Swell thanks mate. Found out he is a chef at one of the breweries downtown and that he was a psychology graduate. Nice one. Chatted for a bit. He had errands to accomplish on his day off.
After dropping off the brew cook, psychological analysis chap. Ping. Zach. Huh I have picked up a Zach before. He immediately messaged me and said make a left toward the parking garage. When I drove in I went right. Fiddlesticks! He said left. Reversed and repositioned myself. Drove back down to correct location. G’day Zach! He said you’re the aspiring archaeologist. Um well technically I am one. He stated last time I was looking for something else in that field. Oh yes I did have you in my car last time didn’t I? Yep. You worked at Haggen near the cinema. Sure do! Sweet. He had a kid with him this time. He was silent. We chatted about my future career prospects and then realized I was dropping them off at a high school in town. It was pretty impressive looking. Looks like they got some money here ay? Yeah it even has a Starbucks. Um what did you just say? Yeah the students really wanted one. The teachers agreed that it was a good decision. Seriously? This school has a bloody Starbucks? My voice cracked in disbelief. What? Yeah. No way! You’re having me on. Nope definitely a Starbucks in there. You have got to be kidding me? What next a Maccas? Pizza Hut? Steakhouse? Unbelievable. I wouldn’t shut up about it. My brain exploded all over the uber and out into most likely some spoiled students latte! Yes my exclamation was heard by many. Including the two high school students standing out the front. Sorry I’m foreign we don’t have fancy coffee joints in schools. USA out of control with consumerism. I suppose students could work at the Starbucks get some money at the lunch breaks. Nope I’m gobsmacked here. Dropped them off. I kept muttering as I left like a crazy person. Damn I thought having vending machines at school was the best thing besides the tuckshop. Nup. Ooo we got a Starbucks in our fancy school. Bloody hell.
After my mind had gone to another dimension and finally returned. I picked up Viktoriia from the airport. She was Russian. How do I know? Well she was on a phone call the whole time talking to someone. I heard her say Americano and Ruski. She was going to Vancouver via the bus station. She packed extremely light. Probably a spy. I made sure I kept silent so she could give the missile codes to Dimitri. Nah she was didn’t say any missile codes. I honestly don’t know what she said. Occasionally she laughed about certain things. Laughing is infectious so I laughed too. OK I smiled. Not crazy at all. I dropped her off and she thanked me in Swahili. I mean English.
Maybe I need to know a few more sentences in another few languages? Could be useful. Mona was my next customer. She was on business at one of the refineries in California. She was cool. She told how what she did was extremely dominated by men, but she learned everything she needed to know on the job 17 years ago from a couple of fellows. They were happy to teach her and she never got a degree or a certificate in anything. I told her I worked in South Australia at an oil and gas field in the desert as an archaeologist. She was stoked t o hear this. We chatted for a while, then she needed wine at the bottlelo. Sure I’ll wait. After she purchased the wine, I said is it Aussie wine? No. Awww. Told her about 19 Crimes and app you use to hear the convicts story. She wrote it down. As I dropped her off she said thank you baby and gave me $10 cash tip. Wow thanks. Wait what did you call me? 👶
Jesse was next and he was a silent talker. Had to really listen hard to hear him. Am I going deaf? No just silent talker. I’d hate to be in a nightclub trying to hear him. What!? You want to do what with a deer? Oh a beer OK! He was a tattoo artist and his partner in crime was a make up artist. Imagine if they swapped jobs for a day 😊🤔😟😲👹👺.
Then there was Mary and Vanessa. From Virginia. In town for a cousin wedding. Awesome sounds fun. As soon as I said I was an archaeologist. Vanessa told me she did an anthropology class once and that she found out you can date obsidian by extracting the water from the stone. Hydro obsidian analysis. Wow! Nice one. I was stunned she knew what she was talking about. I then thought about it. Why does that matter? How old is this obsidian? Oh about 40,000 years. When was it knapped to make a stone tool? Um yesterday. OK. Cool.
I dropped them both off and another Mary pinged me just before I finished the trip. It inadvertently started somehow. Wait which Mary is this one? The one I dropped off or another one? Rang her, which Mary is this? I’m your uber driver. We’re at the Archers Ale. Shit OK. I know where that is. Be there shortly. As I picked them up I apologised for the glitch. They understood. Mary works at a bank and husband is now a corn farmer. I told them about the lady that told me in Canada people have corn wars. Crazy. The farmer said yes it can happen if you’re not careful. If you’re trying to grow sweet corn and it’s non gmo, and your neighbor is growing gmo corn. The gmo corn will germinate the natural corn. How did that become so strong and dominate? That’s tough. After dropping them off it was time to think about finishing up. I thought about getting another trip by the airport. Nothing. Waited. Universe has spoken. I kept the APP on just in case. Almost home! Ping! Ethan 5 minutes away. I got with in 3 minutes of the guy and he cancelled. Darn. It would have been a 19 minute trip south.
Oh well till tomorrow.
