"Getting There" 12/1/07

I'm at my breaking point.  My overall life conditions are intolerable. Here's just one more example of why it's monumental to even get out of bed and go anywhere at all! (besides the health challenges.)

Saturday, when I was done at Towson Public Library it was just after dark. Like I may have mentioned before I found out that the taxi company that I've had the most success with does not accept my Taxi Card!

Everytime I've ever called "Jack's" taxi (the most "logical" one to call in my region) I get dispatchers with the intelligence of a slug. Here is an account of how things went Sat. night. With the extreme cold and the idiocy of the people that work for Jack's , I had to select a place that would be easy to find. Typically when you call dispatch, you have to tell the dispatcher at least 10 times where you are.

I choose to wait directly across the street from the library at cafe spice so I can easily be located.

Here goes:

I call Jack's from my cell phone which costs about .40 a minute. I'm put on hold for 10 minutes. My phone dies. I have to go into Cafe Spice, pay the clerk .50 and ask her if she'll call me a cab. They put her on hold for 20 minutes!   Finally, someone answers.

"Jack's Taxi"

E-"HI, I need a cab, I'm at 321 york, right across the street from the library"

D (dispatch) "Where?"

"321 York, cafe spice, right across the street from the library"

D- "I don't know where that is"

E-For the 5th time, I'm right across the street from the library how hard can that be?"

D-"What's your phone #"

E-"I don't have a phone!"


(With dispatchers like this you're left feeling that there is a pretty slim chance anyone will come and get you at all!)


In a 40 minute period, i watch 4 cabbies just drive right past me! I stop each one and ask them if they are here for me. "No, I'm not."

E-" But it's freezing and I need to get home, can't you take me? You're here already!"

"We're not allowed maam. You'll have to go with which ever specific driver they dispatch."

" "WEll, can't you call dispatch and tell them that you're here and you are going to take me?"

"We're not allowed maam. There is a specific #..............."

By the time the 3rd driver turned me down I called him a few choice words, and he demanded that I apologize. I refused.

By the time the 4th driver came, I had to "pretend" that I had not already called a cab (All four cabs were with Jack's) or he would have never taken me! I told the driver that the first 3 cabs wouldn't take me. He said "you should have CALLED  for a cab!"

After he dropped me off at home, and after I paid him, ONLY THEN, could I tell him that I HAD called dispatch already.

So, to travel 2 miles, it took me one hour, unbelievable stress and about 12 dollars!

So if you just had this one life obstacle in Baltimore, the lack of a private auto, you can see that your quality of life is shit.

Well, 12.5 years of public transit in Indiana and MD, (off and on) and I'm going to try to move to Berkeley. It's a huge risk with so little money. But this is no kind of life!

"You are more then your job title"

If there is one thing I've learned in the last 15 years, it's never, ever judge a person by their job title.

 Some of my most rewarding social interactions I've had have been with taxi drivers.  Most are very educated! Take Hank for example. Hank is about 65 ,  owns a Baltimore theatre, writes screenplays and sends them off to his son who is an actor in Hollywood!

And Mike, I just met him a few days ago. He's my age, African American and grew up in the south. He is writing 2 books.  the subject matter is "sexual molestation in the African American community.  In that 4 mile cab drive, I attempted to get him connected into the Baltimore arts community.

When he dropped me off, he asked me if he could read me one of his poems.  The subject is suicide.   In the poem he wrote, he purports that so many smile their way through the day, but are deeply hurting on the inside. He also told me of a wealthy woman who sponsored him for a summer camp when he was 17. She sent him to a special survival camp where he learned how to survive in the wild!

5 years ago, I had a Starbucks clerk named Sarah, who was a voice major at Peabody.  I attended her concert and she had one of the most beautiful voices I had heard in my life!

   She was due to move to New York City to work as a singer and sadly I never heard from her again.  My friend Arlene asked:

 "Why bother investing in a relationship if they're just going to move away?"

 (Because I like the excitement of meeting new people, even if there is a chance the relationship will be short lived)

WE ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN OUR JOB TITLE! WOULDN'T YOU AGREE? I'd love to hear your story of someone you met who was so much more then their title!