Siddity In The City

There and back again.

Well, Sid made it to Philly in one piece. A strange twist of fate led to me being driven there in a livery cab, one of the ubiquitous Lincoln Town Cars you see blocking all the damn intersections between midtown and the Upper Blank Sides. That was nice. Strange, but nice. You think it's awkward to talk to your cabby for 10 minutes in NYC traffic? Try 4 hours through the Poconos. Don't ask. Actually, the driver was really nice. He gave me some good tips on screwing the wireless communications industry back, for once (sign all your friends and family up with the same wireless company, spend a few extra dollars per month for mobile-to-mobile minutes, and then just be on the phone all the damn time--like, eight hours a day), and turned out to be from the same region of India as a really good friend of mine, so we hit it off, despite the fact that I almost got us lost three times, fell asleep twice, and doubtless drooled all over his nicely conditioned leather seats. I feel like I made a new friend. I certainly know more about him than I do about some of my old ones. When our little journey came to an end, I was kinda sad to see him go. I wasn't the one paying for the actual fare, but I felt compelled to tip him $20, which is hardly enough to cover a trip from Manhattan to Philly, but I am rather poor, so that was the best I could do. He looked shocked, and tried to tell me he'd had too much fun to take a tip, but the man has a family to support, so I wasn't takin' it back. The funny thing is, I was taking the hired car to my grandparents' house, so despite my poverty, I rolled up to their door looking like I was being chauffered around. Which I guess I was, but that ain't my normal means of transport--I'll walk 60 blocks to save $4, you know. But my grandfather, who was waiting at the door to greet me (love my Pop) was so tickled, he went around telling people I pulled up in a limo. There seems to be a trend toward exaggeration amongst my people. I don't know why he was so excited. I mean, it was just a Town Car. Hell, he drives a Continental (which he got after selling his own Town Car), so it's not even like he doesn't see 'em every day. But I couldn't get him to stop telling folks the limo story. Sigh. Tuesday, I did actually pull my train-hop in reverse, and made it back just fine, TYVM, but I realized that it was actually so much more expensive than the Chinatown deal that I might have to risk a little gang violence next time. I stopped at home long enough to shower before taking off again for my parents' place in suburban CT, where I shopped, ate too much, and gave my little brother a butt-whupping in Monopoly for his birthday (HBD, Tinky Foster!) before zipping back today and collapsing in a sweaty heap before my computer. My "vacation" was approximately 120 hours long. I spent about 13 of those hours in transit, and traveled something like 800 miles. My behind is tired.

posted by Sid @ 8/27/2004 01:37:00 AM