"CAN I DO ANYTHING AT ALL FOR YOU?"
After 9,000 rides it is unusual to have someone ask something to me that I haven't heard, but this man did. I was completely surprised when he stepped into my car and was overwhelmed by the 15 foreign bills I had hanging in my car. He said, "You gave me goose bumps," and "You put a smile on my face." I'm not sure his age, but he is probably in his sixties. He he has stage 3 congenital heart disease. He told me that at Stage 4 he will need a new heart. He has lost several people in his family to the disease. He told his doctor, "I refuse to bend to this disease." I was taking him to the CVS to get his heart medicine and I'm not sure who got more out of this trip. He's been doing some traveling with his son and he's collected some foreign currency so he was really impressed with my collection from my riders. He told me that he had a difficult week, so at the end of the ride I surprised him by giving him a Malaysian bill since I had two of them. He said, "Can I do anything at all for you? I just hope I can ride with you again."
"DEEPLY UNDERCOVER"
Steven Segal is an actor who has been in a lot of movies as a good guy who fights the bad guys and he's someone you don't want to mess with. My rider, reminded me a lot of him and he said that. "People have said I should have a ponytail."(Like Steven Segal) This guy was tough too and someone you don't want to mess with. He makes a lot of money working on a job in the hospitality industry, but the most interesting thing about him is what he used to do. He worked undercover for The Department of Justice and he specialized in, "Saving North American women from human trafficking." He told me he would track leads and he would go wherever the leads took him. He's used to working hard and although his new job is challenging, it's nothing like what he used to do.
THE STATE DEPARTMENT MUSICIAN
When you think of a musician I'm pretty sure you don't think of one who works for our state department. My rider has done that for the past ten years, visiting 35 countries playing American music to get people familiar with our country. He has been involved in a cultural program and told me, "We are taken very good care of." He performs at different events representing our country and earns $300 a performance. He's enjoyed doing it and told me that he and the band perform one song in the native language of the country they are in. They usually play bluegrass music, which is their specialty. One time he was at an upscale event in Saudi Arabia when a very official person came up to him and asked, "Do you know "Country Roads" by John Denver?" He had never played it before, but they did that day.
JOINING THE 2%
Over the years there have been very few times I have had three or four riders in my car who had been drinking, but this group was one of them. They were college friends from Pennsylvania and they weren't too loud or rowdy, but they first discussed what would happen if they were in a fight. One girl said, "I would just sit down in a fetal position and suck my thumb." They were having a good time and finishing their drinks. I told them about the many things hanging in my car, but they really loved the picture of the girl who had been drinking and I said was, "Part of the 2% of people in my car that had been drinking." They asked if they could be up there too, and below is their picture and I will be displaying it in my car. It's a great picture with them all smiling!
They also told two of the worst stories imaginable. A nurse explained that one of her patients could not control her bowels. After cleaning her up for half an hour, the patient yelled, "It's coming again!" Let's just say that this nurse was, "hands-on." Another woman told a very long story that involved how her and her boyfriend had racked up hundreds of dollars on each of their Uber accounts in one night and haven't used the accounts in six years. She was so drunk on a St. Patrick's Day, that she ordered and then canceled 20 or so in a bar, before taking one. In one Uber she threw up in a cup, with "nothing getting in the car." She also threw up outside the next Uber and somehow received cleaning charges for both of them. She and all her friends had no problem completing the ride with me without incident. When they heard that I write stories about some of my riders, one of them said, ""If you want a sex story, I'm about it." I passed on that, but they were a fun group and obviously good friends.
` A HAPPY AND HEALTHY ACCOUNTANT
I saved the best story of the month and one of the best of the year, for last. In March of this year I drove a young woman who was under an incredible amount of stress. As an accountant during tax season, she had to do a number of billing hours for her firm. She was suffering from concussion symptoms at the same time after hitting her head. Her doctor advised her to take time off or she would be risking serious injury.
It was great to see her relaxed, smiling and almost completely healthy this time. It's amazing how quickly someone's life can change for the bad and then the good. When her firm would not give her a raise, despite working long hours through her health problems, she gave them notice. Her new job pays her $20,000 more and pays overtime, which the other firm did not do.
She said her accident was also good because she met her boyfriend the same night she hit her head. She did not remember him at all meeting him the second time, but he said, "Don't you remember we talked all night and fell in love?" When I told her that she has a gift in her ability to work with numbers, her reply was, "It's not a gift unless you use it to help people."
As fun and inspiring as this ride was, she surprised me with a great story. I asked her the trivia question about the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston and like many others she did not know what it was built to look like. However, she said, "I was the first one to go over the new bridge." When she was in third grade, she submitted the picture below for a contest that she won. Representing her elementary school and with a winner from the middle school and high school, they were driven across the bridge in a limo on opening day. She had to go to school afterwards and the limo took her there.
Congratulations on your new life and yes, she still has that big smile as she did in third grade. (I am sure she is smiling right now)
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