Have you ever been in a situation where you know that no matter what choice you make, the outcome is probably not going to be ideal?
See since I’m on the swim team at Pitt I had to go to the fan fest at 6:30 Thursday and help pass out fliers with the dates of our meets. This meant taking a bus. So my roommate and I showed up to catch the bus 10 minutes early and waited for 20 minutes, but the bus never came. The first life lesson I learned? Pittsburgh buses aren’t that reliable. We debated, and eventually Shannon agreed to call a cab, which I figured would mean another 15 minute wait and an unfortunate six dollar fee (this last assessment was based off the three or four cab rides my mom and I had taken here at PittStart which the cabbies ran the meter by distance). Sadly, the cab took about 35 minutes and started the meter before we even got in.
I entered the cab in a hurry, it was 7:00 and we were already 30 minutes late. I looked up and saw that the meter was already at $3.80 which I found mildly annoying. It was just another $1.60 for each of us though, and I just had to accept the fact that was one less coffee I was going to be able to buy from Caribou Coffee. Since I own a Keurig, that really wasn’t even a concern in my mind. Had it been a five or six dollar charge I probably would have (in a more polite way) asked him why the hell he was charging so much already when he was 15 minutes later than they said he would be and made US walk up a giant hill that was about another five minutes out of our way and his.
Things weren’t that bad for a bit until I looked up and noticed that the rate was jumping by time and not by distance. Ahhh this is going to be kind of expensive was the thought bouncing around my head and my situation went from mildly annoying to just average annoying. We got off and headed towards downtown, and the guy got in the lane to avoid the bridge. I had gone out to dinner with this other kid from Alaska and his parents Monday night and we had taken the bridge that he was avoiding because “it was now closed” and so my first thought was that it was newly closed. The traffic was so lined up in our lane I didn’t think about it much until more cars started whizzing by in the other lane. Then the cabbie got the idea of the century (he either truly believed the bridge was closed or he wanted us to believe it, which is more likely) and started driving down the middle of the two lanes, over the dotted line. He tells us he doesn’t want to let anyone in, no one passes him! In his mind he was “Captain Badass” and people drove his way or not at all. People were honking and finding ways around him, and instead of giving the bird like they would in Anchorage, they rolled down their windows and got in a swearing match with him. The whole time Shannon and I are like “ohmyGodIneedapaperbagHELP” and trying so hard not to cry. And because we’re in this huge traffic jam and he’s taking the long way the meter has gone up to $11.50 and I am loosing more and more coffee and it’s about 7:12 and we’re almost 45 minutes late. I’m more than scared for my life as we drive down the middle of the road even as the streets become two-way, and instead of mildly annoyed or average annoyed, I’m flat pissed off. The meter just keeps jumping, and as soon as we get to the field Shannon and I offer to walk around (the fare is now at $15.55 and I’m thinking FML, FML, FML) he decides not to let us, and drives the long way around the field and drops us off at our entrance, raising our final bill to $16.55 and making our driver very happy. At the beginning of this adventure my thoughts were just about the expense. At this point only one word echoed in my head, and that was DICK. It was a reoccurring word, and alternated between a shout (DICK) and a short mutter (…dick…) and I learned that Yellow Cabs is probably the worst cab company ever. I’ll take the bus that doesn’t show up over that experience any day.
And we were able to snatch a ride back on a student shuttle. Thank goodness.
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