It would be better if you read this and imagined music suitable for an intermission or an elevator playing in the background. It's been a while since I've posted and there are reasons for this. The primary one is that driving a cab makes you go crazy. The job is an alienating one. When you get behind the wheel of a taxi, you become a peripheral character in everyone else's life. As you drive around hundreds of drunken business people obsessed with finance and status you start to lose grip on your own identity. Some drivers make up for it by becoming lunatic caricatures of taxi drivers, babbling about leftist politics while trying to emulate Mario Andretti through rush hour traffic. I started shutting down. My emotions ranged from blank to angry.
Then, I took a vacation. I drove to Portland, Seattle, then down to San Diego a few weeks later. I didn't work for a month. When I got back, I was more at peace with the gig. Luke Powell said that this happens to everyone: you either burn out in a year and quit or get over it and learn how to deal with the job. I am learning. And this shit is still too interesting to pass up.
So, don't go away. I'll be back in a few days with a full column about crime, drunken sailors, or sex. Probably sex.
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