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Nov. 23rd, 2007 01:48 pmI got home from work last night a good hour or more earlier than I expected to- I never thought about the fact that once it turns midnight on Friday, they go back to a normal weekday schedule, so there was no waiting for a bus in Lutherville, and I only had to wait a few minutes for a bus at Greenmount and North ave...I tried to grab a cab from there because it was cold, and I didn't really feel like standing around there by myself after midnight.
The only cab that came by in that time was occupied, and after seeing me try to hail it, some no doubt well-meaning stranger waiting for the bus came over and started telling em that I should grab a hack. (I don't know if this is common anywhere else, it probably is however I've never seen it anywhere outside of Baltimore, so it's a really weird thing to me...but if you don't know, a hack is basically a random driver with a vehicle trying to act as a taxi. People do this hand-bouncy movement to flag them down (I swear, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen) or they will pull up to bus stops where people are gathered and honk their horn or ask if anyone wants a ride. Essentially, hitchiking with the drivers actively looking.)
Not anything I would ever want to do. For serious. So this guy starts telling me I should try to get a hack. I say no thanks. He asks why, and I'm a bit surprised that this question should need to be asked. We're talking about someone who's not licensed to be a taxi, with a car not designated as such, who knows what sort of insurance should anythign happen, and knowing absolutely nothing about the person themselves. Of course, with taxi drivers, you know nothing about them, but they've got the designated car, and all that other stuff attached to them. It's their freakin' job. Sh. clearly and nicely despite my irritation, thinking it was good on about how they're mostly licensed drivers with good insurance who are just trying to make some extra money and that when he had a car he hacked all the time, and if he had extra money on him tonight, he would find one instead of taking the bus. All this time, there's a car sitting at the corner honking its horn, I was just barely aware of it til the driver rolled down the window and asked if anyone wanted a hack...then this guy said "You should go take that one" and I said no and that I didn't really see any reason to continue this conversation, that if he liked hacks, that's great for him, but I'm going to stick with bus or taxi. and he just keeps right on going, then tells me that he wouldn't have taken that hack if he could, but I should have. WTF? Why on earth was he so insistent that I should hop in a car with a random stranger that he wouldn't have himself? (Of course, I had to ask this and he said somethign about the guy rolling down the window instead of opening the door, and otherwise he might have because it was a really nice car...ok, whatever...) So I said that I didn't really feel like debating the question anymore, and to let it drop and let me alone, and I went under then little glass shelter to try to get away from the wind. So this guy follows me and starts talking about some place that he got thanksgiving dinner...some restaurant that apparently gave everyone free dinner for four hours yesterday afternoon, and how none of the other restaurants around ever did that and it just wasn't right that other restaurants didn't give their food to everyone for free, and the only time another one did that was some Pakistani restaurant who was giving dinner to people who didn't have money, and he went there when he heard there was free dinner, but decided not to when he found out that it was "dinner for the poor" because he didn't want to get labeled and just because he has a few dollars in his pocket, he shouldn't be treated any different.
If the bus hadn't pulled up by then, I was seriously tempted to flag down a hack just to get the hell away from him. (Not that I would have, but definitely tempted.) I was afraid he'd try to sit near me on the bus and keep going, and found a lone empty seat surrounded by occupied seats and he had to sit outside of coversational range, so I escaped the annoyance.
I came home last night, went to bed almost immediately- was tired, had about three hours sleep in the last thirty or so. Fell immediately to sleep, and spent the night having a string of really weird dreams, the most memorable one involved me being in Lancaster, for some reason carrying around a huge potted plant, a computer and monitor, a backpack and some other things. I was sitting in a bar trying to eat dinner...I'd ordered pork chops and mashed potatoes or something like that, and suddenly realized that my dinner had vanished, plate and all- as in, wasn't there and I hadn't even had a bit of it. I realized that they'd brought it to me about an hour ago, and next thign I know, no dinner. I looked around for it, couldn't find it...asked the bartender and he said somethign about the other bartender taking it and putting it somewhere to keep it warm for me- I was rather annoyed with this, I'd wanted to eat my dinner. So he pulled the plate out of some sort of heating box, and I found that the meat had been cut into strips and arranged in some weird pattern, and that was all that was on the plate. I took a bite and found the meat cold and chewy, when I complained, the bartender told me to eat it anyway. I don't think I ever did. for some reason, the computer that I had with me was on the bar with the monitor, the power plugged in and the monitor on...I tried to connect to the internet but forgot that there would be no internet connection. When I realized this, I gave up.
Elsewhere in the bar, a group of women were demanding a higher bar stool for one of their friends who was supposedly very tall. The bartender told them to just hit the lever on the side to adjust the height...this wasn't to their liking, so their friend took the stool and put it on top of the table and sat up there while her friends applauded.
Shortly after this, I left the bar with my computer, monitor, potted plant and assorted other things and found a taxi to take me home. I got out of the car about a block from my house and ran into a friend of my parents...who was dressed as Santa Claus. He offered to help me carry my stuff to the house. Got in the house, no one else was home- I was expecting my family to be there. Soon afterwards though, they did show up and guy in Santa suit sprinted out the front door. At that point, I realized that I'd never paid the taxi driver, and decide that I needed to do something about that. I was going to call the cab company, b8ut I only knew one phone number for a cab company, and it was the wrong company (Dream took place in Lancaster. There are two cab companies in Lancaster city, one of them has a very easy phone number to remember- 392-2222. The other, not so much. I took a cab from the other company.) so I started searching for a phone book, found one in a kitchen drawer and suddenly forgot what I was looking for. Then I remembered, and I got to the right page...but I then couldn't remember which cab company it was that I needed to call.
In the middle fo all this, my parents were putting up a Christmas tree, against the front door in the entranceway (bi-level house, so the front door opened to a set of stairs going up and one going down. That's where the Christmas tree was going.) It was a small tree- odd because my mom has slightly ostentatious tastes when it comes to Christmas trees- and it was sitting on a table. But it was laden with tinsel and glittery ornaments and lights. There was another, similar tree already in place upstairs in the living room, though less elaborately decorated.
This dream wasn't actually taking place at Christmas time, it was the middle of the summer- though kinda chilly for the summer.
That's all I remember...I think this was the dream that ended up being interrupted by the doorbell (by this time it was morning). It rang a second time and since I'm expecting some books that I ordered, I scrambled to get up and down the stairs lest I should miss the mail man...it turned out to be a couple of Jehova's Witnesses. I was still mostly asleep, and all squinty-eyed, so I just waved my hand and mumbled "No, no go away"...one of them turned to walk away, the other was looking at me kinda strangely and holding out one of their magazines and riffling through her stuff, pulled out a brochure with the word "modesty" printed across the top." I waved again, said "No, I'm going back to sleep" and closed the door. Heading back upstairs, I realized that the zippered top I had thrown on was only zipper about halfway. I went back to sleep for another three and a half hours.
And that, folks, has been my Black Friday so far. No amazon books, but two netflix movies have arrived as expected. I will probably run around the corner to Ghettomart at some point to get half and half for coffee. I plan to write this Lampteria ritual for next week. And maybe even read a bit.
The only cab that came by in that time was occupied, and after seeing me try to hail it, some no doubt well-meaning stranger waiting for the bus came over and started telling em that I should grab a hack. (I don't know if this is common anywhere else, it probably is however I've never seen it anywhere outside of Baltimore, so it's a really weird thing to me...but if you don't know, a hack is basically a random driver with a vehicle trying to act as a taxi. People do this hand-bouncy movement to flag them down (I swear, it's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen) or they will pull up to bus stops where people are gathered and honk their horn or ask if anyone wants a ride. Essentially, hitchiking with the drivers actively looking.)
Not anything I would ever want to do. For serious. So this guy starts telling me I should try to get a hack. I say no thanks. He asks why, and I'm a bit surprised that this question should need to be asked. We're talking about someone who's not licensed to be a taxi, with a car not designated as such, who knows what sort of insurance should anythign happen, and knowing absolutely nothing about the person themselves. Of course, with taxi drivers, you know nothing about them, but they've got the designated car, and all that other stuff attached to them. It's their freakin' job. Sh. clearly and nicely despite my irritation, thinking it was good on about how they're mostly licensed drivers with good insurance who are just trying to make some extra money and that when he had a car he hacked all the time, and if he had extra money on him tonight, he would find one instead of taking the bus. All this time, there's a car sitting at the corner honking its horn, I was just barely aware of it til the driver rolled down the window and asked if anyone wanted a hack...then this guy said "You should go take that one" and I said no and that I didn't really see any reason to continue this conversation, that if he liked hacks, that's great for him, but I'm going to stick with bus or taxi. and he just keeps right on going, then tells me that he wouldn't have taken that hack if he could, but I should have. WTF? Why on earth was he so insistent that I should hop in a car with a random stranger that he wouldn't have himself? (Of course, I had to ask this and he said somethign about the guy rolling down the window instead of opening the door, and otherwise he might have because it was a really nice car...ok, whatever...) So I said that I didn't really feel like debating the question anymore, and to let it drop and let me alone, and I went under then little glass shelter to try to get away from the wind. So this guy follows me and starts talking about some place that he got thanksgiving dinner...some restaurant that apparently gave everyone free dinner for four hours yesterday afternoon, and how none of the other restaurants around ever did that and it just wasn't right that other restaurants didn't give their food to everyone for free, and the only time another one did that was some Pakistani restaurant who was giving dinner to people who didn't have money, and he went there when he heard there was free dinner, but decided not to when he found out that it was "dinner for the poor" because he didn't want to get labeled and just because he has a few dollars in his pocket, he shouldn't be treated any different.
If the bus hadn't pulled up by then, I was seriously tempted to flag down a hack just to get the hell away from him. (Not that I would have, but definitely tempted.) I was afraid he'd try to sit near me on the bus and keep going, and found a lone empty seat surrounded by occupied seats and he had to sit outside of coversational range, so I escaped the annoyance.
I came home last night, went to bed almost immediately- was tired, had about three hours sleep in the last thirty or so. Fell immediately to sleep, and spent the night having a string of really weird dreams, the most memorable one involved me being in Lancaster, for some reason carrying around a huge potted plant, a computer and monitor, a backpack and some other things. I was sitting in a bar trying to eat dinner...I'd ordered pork chops and mashed potatoes or something like that, and suddenly realized that my dinner had vanished, plate and all- as in, wasn't there and I hadn't even had a bit of it. I realized that they'd brought it to me about an hour ago, and next thign I know, no dinner. I looked around for it, couldn't find it...asked the bartender and he said somethign about the other bartender taking it and putting it somewhere to keep it warm for me- I was rather annoyed with this, I'd wanted to eat my dinner. So he pulled the plate out of some sort of heating box, and I found that the meat had been cut into strips and arranged in some weird pattern, and that was all that was on the plate. I took a bite and found the meat cold and chewy, when I complained, the bartender told me to eat it anyway. I don't think I ever did. for some reason, the computer that I had with me was on the bar with the monitor, the power plugged in and the monitor on...I tried to connect to the internet but forgot that there would be no internet connection. When I realized this, I gave up.
Elsewhere in the bar, a group of women were demanding a higher bar stool for one of their friends who was supposedly very tall. The bartender told them to just hit the lever on the side to adjust the height...this wasn't to their liking, so their friend took the stool and put it on top of the table and sat up there while her friends applauded.
Shortly after this, I left the bar with my computer, monitor, potted plant and assorted other things and found a taxi to take me home. I got out of the car about a block from my house and ran into a friend of my parents...who was dressed as Santa Claus. He offered to help me carry my stuff to the house. Got in the house, no one else was home- I was expecting my family to be there. Soon afterwards though, they did show up and guy in Santa suit sprinted out the front door. At that point, I realized that I'd never paid the taxi driver, and decide that I needed to do something about that. I was going to call the cab company, b8ut I only knew one phone number for a cab company, and it was the wrong company (Dream took place in Lancaster. There are two cab companies in Lancaster city, one of them has a very easy phone number to remember- 392-2222. The other, not so much. I took a cab from the other company.) so I started searching for a phone book, found one in a kitchen drawer and suddenly forgot what I was looking for. Then I remembered, and I got to the right page...but I then couldn't remember which cab company it was that I needed to call.
In the middle fo all this, my parents were putting up a Christmas tree, against the front door in the entranceway (bi-level house, so the front door opened to a set of stairs going up and one going down. That's where the Christmas tree was going.) It was a small tree- odd because my mom has slightly ostentatious tastes when it comes to Christmas trees- and it was sitting on a table. But it was laden with tinsel and glittery ornaments and lights. There was another, similar tree already in place upstairs in the living room, though less elaborately decorated.
This dream wasn't actually taking place at Christmas time, it was the middle of the summer- though kinda chilly for the summer.
That's all I remember...I think this was the dream that ended up being interrupted by the doorbell (by this time it was morning). It rang a second time and since I'm expecting some books that I ordered, I scrambled to get up and down the stairs lest I should miss the mail man...it turned out to be a couple of Jehova's Witnesses. I was still mostly asleep, and all squinty-eyed, so I just waved my hand and mumbled "No, no go away"...one of them turned to walk away, the other was looking at me kinda strangely and holding out one of their magazines and riffling through her stuff, pulled out a brochure with the word "modesty" printed across the top." I waved again, said "No, I'm going back to sleep" and closed the door. Heading back upstairs, I realized that the zippered top I had thrown on was only zipper about halfway. I went back to sleep for another three and a half hours.
And that, folks, has been my Black Friday so far. No amazon books, but two netflix movies have arrived as expected. I will probably run around the corner to Ghettomart at some point to get half and half for coffee. I plan to write this Lampteria ritual for next week. And maybe even read a bit.
