happy half birthday to me!!

you won't believe my day so far. its 7:28 and i am at work. on my half birthday (which i LOVE, btw!) i should find a cupcake or something for me tonight. i wonder if my roommate will think of it.... hint hint...

anyway, so i talked to a bunch of people yesterday to give me advice on whether or not i should stay at work (this is around 6pm) and stay really late or go home and work. everyone convinced me to go home (i'm a taurus so i'm indecisive). so i head home after getting some indian food. i ate while watching criminal minds and then it went downhill. i should've started working right then and there. but no. i turned on i love money. and i love i love money. it is so trashy. its hysterical. AND i kind of like the challenges.

anyway, of course i got hooked and watched 2 episdoes and then promptly fell asleep. much too early. i woke up around 130 and kept thinking "i have so much to do, i have so much to do." so i got up, went downstairs and started working from home. it was too hard. the system is slow when you work remotely and i had a LOT to do. so, after an hour or so, i got ready and called a cab.

so now here is where i need to fill in some backstory. a few weeks ago, my friend gidge was in town. we had a great time. i keep meaning to write about it. she stayed with me saturday night and then was heading home to dc on sunday evening. we were out and about all day on sunday and after talking about it, she decided to just take a cab to the airport instead of the t. she wanted to rest a bit more (she's preggers) and hang out with me and the cab is so much easier AND its only like 25 bucks. so 3 hours before her flight, i call a cab. and i keep telling her not to worry. i'm like "it takes less than 15 min to get to the airport, you'll be there in PLENTY of time." we continue watching chelsea lately. after a bit, gidge points out that we've been waiting for the cab for a while. i check my phone. its been 20 min. def too long. they said it would be 5-10 min and i usually never have to wait. so i call back and the guy says "he's on his way. he'll be there in a few minutes." so gidge and i go outside to wait. its a bit chilly, so we started to head back in. all of a sudden, the cab pulls up outside my place and then drives off! i call back and i explain that we were waiting for a cab for a very long time and they left immediately. so he calls the guy and says "i'll get him to turn around." meanwhile, some very sketchy kids are sitting on the bench outside my place. gidge was freaked out, but we didn't want to go back in because we didn't want to miss the cab.

so the cab finally shows up and gidge and i say goodbye. i go back in to the house and start picking up. 5 min later, i get a call from gidge saying that the cab driver's meter is broken and wondering how much it is to the airport. i tell her its usually $20 and then i give a tip to equal about $25 total. she says that to the guy and he replies that his boss said it was $35. i said "no, absolutely not, i take a cab to the airport twice a month, minimum, and its not more than 25 bucks." so finally they agree on $25.

10 minutes later, she calls back. i said "wait, where are you? why aren't you in a tunnel?" because by now she should've been half way to the airport. she explains that he was driving really slowly and kept stopping at green lights to wait until it turned red to wait longer and THEN go. i could tell she was really worried about getting to the airport on time. i told her it would be fine. while she's on the phone with me, the cab driver brings up again that it should be $35. i tell her that when she gets to the airport, there will be a cop standing outside to make sure people don't stop in their vehicles and she should call him over and explain the situation. she repeats this aloud so the cab driver can hear. I also ask her for his medallion number so that i can call and report him. she says this aloud, as well, which gets him to drive a bit faster. we say goodbye again.

20 min later, she calls me back while she's standing in line to get her ticket. turns out, when they got to the airport, she tries to pay with a credit card and he says that the credit card machine is broken and he told her that. (note - the meter and the credit card machine are two different things) they argued and she said that she would give him $25 like they agreed, but that included the tip. he got upset with her and YELLED AT HER to get OUT OF THE CAB. so she got a free ride to the airport! albeit, it was slow and stressful, but it was free. when she called, she was still a bit frazzled but we joked about the situation. i told her that i had been having problems with that company and was going to start using a different service.

now, fast forward to this morning, my half birthday. i call a cab and i call a DIFFERENT number from what i used to use. i ask for a cab. so this guy picks me up and the cab
SMELLS
LIKE
FARTS.

it was disgusting. i try to be respectful and not say anything. so we start driving and the guy asks me, "did you have a friend who went to the airport a few weeks ago?" i know exactly where he is going with this... "yes...?" and he says "she didn't pay for her cab ride!" and i explained "thats because you yelled at her to get out of the cab." and he starts YELLING AT ME that he told her the meter was broken. and i said that i didn't know the meter and the credit card machine were linked (one is by him and one is in the back). then he starts yelling at me that it should've cost $35 and i explain that that is not true, etc. i sat very calmly WHILE he YELLED at me and even paid cash at the end just to make nice (they get charged if you use a credit card, so it kinda sucks when you dont go far e.g. $7.40 worth of a ride to work at 3am). i got out of the cab and said in a very cheery voice, "have a good day!" and went in to work.

the whole point of this is two-fold: i'm a rock star for coming in so early and 2) i'm the BETTER PERSON for not getting upset that a cab driver was yelling at me. oh, AND i'm annoyed that the cabs must be linked. not pleased!

in any case, whatever. do you celebrate your half birthday? i normally dont but am going to since its my last in my 20s!!!