So my last day at Red Bank is here. I took the day off because i need to pack and prepare to leave. Its 9 am and my roommates have left for work. The house is absolutely silent(except for the noise of me typing).The increasingly familiar feeling of 'leaving' fills me up. I ought to be thinking of so many things, my thesis, or updating my resume... but instead i cant help remember all my taxi rides to work.
"yeaahllow car" the call attendant at yellow car taxi company i think had a heavy southern accent, and sounded perpetually high.
"Hi we'd like a cab from crowford, to 307 middletown linkcroft.."
"yewokay, 10 to 20 minutes hun" it freaked me out in the beginning, 'hun' is only used by middle aged white women.
"ok thanks"
sure enough, we'd hear a honk in 15 min. Cab guys actually got to know us lil and so began to be very talkative. There was Mr.website.
" so you guys are like computer programmers?"
"yeah, we are interns" i would say sometimes or other times id say working at avaya :)
" oh alright ... u guys know computers programming and stuff"
" yeah a lil"
"that's cool man... i really like computers man" now there was something about "liking computers" that made me so freaking condescending to the poor dude, but you got to admit, liking computers is similar to saying " ohh technology is great these days", things that bored stay-at-home moms talk about when they see something they dont quite understand on the discovery channel.
" Im trying to build a website, for a gallery.. like put up painting and stuff" my cab guy continues.
"that's cool"
" yeah.. been working on it for a while.. say do you happen to know how to include pay pal into my website?"
"mmmm.."
"I want some forms in paypal filled up you know.. when i click on some button.. you know"
No i did not know. I had never used paypal leave alone building an web application that does billing, im sure its not hard but its one of those you either know how to or dont.
" yeah sure, sounds like u need more than just a html page. You might want to see if you need some javasript logic embedded in the site that communicates with the paypal server to automatically fill stuff out" , i almost felt guilty talking crap that i know nothing about.
"well.. aaa.. im using dreamweaver" obviously my half ass jargon confused the guy.
" why dont you try googling dreamweaver and paypal" best advice you can give anyone - use google. I had done my good deed for the day.
A week or so later we had the same guy drive us back from work.
"Thanks man, i almost got that thing to work. I called up the paypal guy.. he was saying something similar to what you had told me", Aha! see maybe i dint talk all crap last time around.
" you mean about the javascript" i enquired feeling pretty good about myself.
" ah no.. about the google thing".
" oh ok".
*****************
Once, a really doped looking cab guy was playing some music. I dont know if i was really tired or something but the stuff was sounding really nice. The sound was familiar yet not something i could put my finger on. Had a R.E.M feel, along with a dream theaterish thing happening.
"Is this on the radio?"
" ahh no man.. its me"
" whats that?"
" its me.. on the CD.. im singing in this one"
God dayum.. the dude sounded nothing like it when he talks, but the music was something I instantly liked.
"thats you?"
"yeah its my band..."
"cool"
" yeah we're trying to make it big you know"
" it sounds really good man.. you guys got a record or something"
" not yet .. hey you wanna go ahead and give me you email.. we like creating a mailing list and stuff" so i wrote my id to him.
" this sounds good man.. reminds me of R.E.M and dream theater."
"thank you, we trying to be ourselves... the other singer in the band he sounds lot like the dream theater guy.. hehe.. he drivers another cab here.. and so does out lead guitarist"
"haha.. thats cool man.."
"the problem with dream theater is that are all soo fucking talented.. soo classical doesnt always appeal to most people,.. well they got a base already so what ever they do sells you know.." every now and then he look back at me while driving..which scared the hell ou of me, i prefer his doopy eyes to stay on the raod.
" thats true i guess"
" we like simple music man... the power of simplicity" hmmm i thought i herd that line in a commercial before .. but its a good thought :).
"you guys sound good man.. i like the sound." they really did.. it was absolutely not like those teen garage bands who make noise in the hope of making it big.
"thank you .. add us on myspace.. we're called 'Bipolar'.. haha.. you know what that means"
"mmm yeah opposites right?"
"no man.. its like crazy.." he looked back at me for what seemed like 5 minutes while doing 35 miles, " we are all crazy you know.. like the whole world" well .. i guess he had a deep philosophical side about him.
"oh ok"
So he played like a few songs of his, before we got him. I still can't find his band on myspace, there are a few named bipolar.. but i could not find him in the picture of the band. Now i kinda forgot who he looks, and dont quite remeber the songs too, except that they were really good. They dint mail me about the album he said they were trying to make.
I hope they make it big.
There was also a cool cabbie who loved horses.. and he even took detours to show us the stables and stuff.. but ill tell about him later i guess.
