What an odd, good day I had today.
Today was a crazy, busy day. Work, as it has been since January 1st, was insane. 17 hours of work shoved into an 11 hour day. But I was determined to make it out by 7pm to meet my friend for dinner. We had a great, relaxing glass of wine while we caught up on the last few weeks of chatter then headed to what has quickly become my favorite midtown casual Italian dinner joint.
The restaurant was strangely empty tonight. But of the 8 people in the restaurant, apparently THREE of us were FU grads!! Yes, that's right, the couple sitting next to us BOTH went to Fairfield U! I, not only jotted down their names (for proper stalking later), but also learned that I apparently still look exactly the same after almost 11 years and my memory has gone to crap, because I had NO CLUE who they were. ha!
THEN after a delicious chicken parm dinner, I caved to taking a cab home. ... I mean, I DID manage to walk to the subway through an ice storm this morning... of sorts... doesn't that earn me a ride home? Probably not, but if I hadn't I wouldn't have met my cab driver.
He, who has lived the last 25 years in Queens, has also been driving a cab for almost just as long. He works for a private car - one man who leases the medallion, as opposed to a company who has a garage and multiple medallions. He shares the car with one other man. He always drives the same car and often coordinates pick up and drop off's with the "day shift" driver. This guy drives the night shift - 5pm to 5am. On slow nights he won't drive the full 12 hours, like during last night's ice storm. But on weekends, he definitely will. He pays $170 a day to drive the car and needs the busy hours to add up. He has a wife and 2 sons - 12 and 16 years old. He raised his children in Astoria on 31st and crescent. Only recently have they moved to Sunnyside - $1900 a month for a 3 bedroom... a rip off in his opinion.
These random meetings and random conversations are, in my opinion, what makes living in NY so great.
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