Death Cab for Cutie
Not the band, but it seems lately that I am finding myself in the oddest taxi cabs. Last night I was headed up to the Panhandle, and managed to flag a cab just outside my door. This more unusual than you might think, and if you live in SF then you know what I mean. At any rate I jumped into the cab and gave him my destination. Right off the bat he seemed to be overly friendly far too awake for the late hour. He informed me that he'd started four hours late, and I was only his second fare.
Great, I thought, this means he'll get me to where I'm going quickly and angle for a tip. On our way over there we got almost cut off by a minivan and the driver explained to me how when you turn left you're supposed to stay in your lane. The van caught up with us, and the driver (an older Asian gentleman) started mouthing the words, "fuck you" through the window. To my surprise my driver motioned for him to roll down his window, then informed him in an eerily calm voice that he should stay in his lane when turning. Then he proceeded to spew profanities at the other driver and spit at his car! This was an unexpected turn of events that was only surpassed by the old man's beginning to get out of his minivan.
Mercifully the light turned green and we peeled away, only to have the old man catch up with us as we drove up Fell towards the Haight. My driver seemed busy in the front seat and as the old man pulled level with us he splashed water from a bottle into the guy's minivan and then threw the bottle through the open window. At this point I was beginning to wonder whether I'd be getting to my destination at all. It was then that my cabby veered left and we had shaken our tail. It's been quite a while since my life was in the hands of some crazed, tweaked-out maniac, and I wasn't exactly pleased to be there again. Still, life seemed to be taking a turn towards the exciting.