The riders of the Austin night have left me in deep thought. The demand took me deeper into the night than any night has before. The atmosphere in the vehicle had started out with clueless and baseless arrogance, and had ended in almost overpowering machismo-ism. In between those two extremes, was everything else.
It can be mentally taxing when there is a wide span of different personalities, especially when they are as diverse as the ones experienced tonight. It is also incredibly interesting to be constantly bringing out different components of my own personality as I attempt to connect with the rider and create a friendly and comfortable atmosphere in the vehicle. An atmosphere of trust and confidence.
The first riders actually gave me a headache from the conversations they were having as I was taking them to a wedding in south Austin. All of the "as ifs" and "I was like" followed by the pause where one has to fill in the blank of what is being referred to. Terrible conversational skills from two beautiful and obviously well-off in life, ladies. The wedding location looked to be very cool.
I had my first verbal cancellation from a lady because it had taken too long to get there. I did not like this at all. I had circled the indicated pick up spot 3 times and even parked once. The lady had made no attempt to make herself visible in the pick up area even after calling her twice and describing my vehicle to her. She said she had not used rideshare before and it was certainly apparent. In an incredible coincidence, the moment she canceled her ride another person at the same spot requested a ride. There was no problem in picking them up.
I was tired and on my way home knowing that I had not achieved my money goal for the night, when I received a request near 183 and McNeil. I was at the exit and made a smooth transition over to the right lane and then slid silently down the exit ramp. I picked up the 2 young gentlemen and took them east to the Techridge area where I dropped them off knowing that I had ended up reaching my $100 goal for the day after all. While checking the earnings in the Fare app, I received a request from someone to be picked up at the Domain. I had forgotten to turn the app off and I am typically not one to decline ride requests. I accepted and saw that the pick up was at a cool and happening new area of the Domain on a street called Rock Rose. I arrived at about 1:40am as closing time for the clubs was approaching, and picked up 2 gentleman who had been partying and were not ready for the night to end. The gentlemen carried with them a very strong presence that prompted me to opt for the more masculine aspects of my personality while conversing with them. It was not much of a surprise that they were discussing continuing the night at a strip club. Their original destination request was the Yellow Rose, a well know gentleman's club on North Lamar. For some reason that destination was vetoed and the totally nude XTC club was selected. We arrived and the place was alive with both activity and the lighting on the outside of the building. As the passengers were unloading, one of them turned and invited me to go with them. I had the quick and calm answer of, "its tempting but no thanks", but inside I knew that it would have been one hell of a time had I accepted.
I turned off the app, checked my earnings and surrendered the deep night to the remaining drivers that I knew were out there somewhere in the dark, ready to respond to the next request.
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