This has nothing to do with movies and everything to do with the real world. The reason you have not seen me around is becasue I started driving a cab. Recently I started writing a new blog that is really just quick little hits on my life as college town cab driver. No I am not telling you where, I do it more for self amusement than wanting anyone to read it. However this last piece was something I wanted to share, and since I am trying not to connect my name to this other blog I thought I would drop by and share it with all of you.

Being a cab driver and a dad is quite painful at times when you see changes in your son but are never really around enough to watch him grow up. My time away from my son is the hardest part of this job. Believe me when I say if something that paid what I need came along I would take it in a heart beat, but I would always miss driving the cab.

I spent 2 years looking for work when I found the job driving the cab. I state these things as a matter of fact not a plea for pity or anything like that. It is what it is. That simple.

However this job does get in your blood like a drug addiction. It's not the money that you get addicted to. It's no the rush of knowing you're going make good money on a ride when a fare tells you where they're going. It's knowing anything can and probably will happen tonight. You could take a story every day from this job and fill a page or two of some odd ball thing that happened. Honestly, the addiction for me is hearing their stories. Sharing this small insignificant 5 to 30 minutes with a person or people and then they vanish as you vanish from them. The good rides don't always mean good money, and the good money rides are not always good rides, but somewhere in the middle there is a a moment when I forget I'm working and my job starts to be about hanging out and picking up money.

It is the most at ease I have ever been with any job I've ever had. There is always that performance anxiety that goes with any job, and I do mean any job. You have an expected level of performance whether it is perceived or actual and that causes stress. My job is to be the most laid back man on the road. I am teflon. It all slides right off. There are nights that teflon gets scratched up and things don't slide so easy, but then there are the nights that are nothing but gravy and it all pours out nice and easy. I have no responsibility other than to get you to your destination as smooth and and safely as I can. The rest is all gravy, and it's what I dig about what I do. You see a good ride to me is that ride where I was thoroughly entertained and I got paid on top of it. It's a win win.

Stop for a moment and think the next time you take a cab, that driver is not a monkey in a suit. That driver is somebody. That somebody may or may not remember you, but if you see the same driver more than twice, that driver will never forget you.