Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Relationship Troubles

Not every ride goes smoothly.

I recently picked up a passenger from an auto repair shop. She had dropped off her car for service and needed a ride to (what I learned was) her boyfriend's house. When I got to the shop, she was not ready for pickup. She was still finalizing things with the shop. I should have just canceled the ride and driven off at that point, but I'm a nice guy and I waited. When she was ready, she told me she needed to get some things from her car since she would be without it for a while. I expected her to get a couple of things but she got enough stuff to fill my trunk and half of my back seat. We finally got underway and I saw it was going to be a long drive. A few minutes into the drive she pulled her phone out of her bag and asked if I had a USB-C charger. She said she only had 2% battery left, so I let her use my charging cable. Everything was fine for about 20 minutes while she held her phone, just letting it charge. After a while, she powered it up and began flipping through various apps, keeping conversation to a minimum, and I'm just driving and chiming in with a few comments when necessary.

Suddenly, she explodes.

Her boyfriend, the one I'm taking her (and all of her stuff) to see has a status update on Facebook indicating that he is now in a relationship with someone who isn't her. OMG. She flips the switch into a highly-agitated mode and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to need to pull the car over and put her out. She calls him on the phone and he answers. She's yelling, pounding the dashboard, and kicking the floorboard of my car. She's telling him that she has never cheated on him and why would he dare do something like this knowing that she's coming to see him. The conversation goes on for a bit longer and I'm wondering about the legal consequences of kicking her out and just driving off with her stuff. All of a sudden, she drops the bomb.

She uses the n-word.

I just about slammed on my brakes right then. She told him, "I didn't fuck that nigger, he just kissed me on the forehead, you moron. We've been friends since the 8th grade." We were less than 5 minutes away from the destination. I'm gripping the steering wheel running mental calculations on potential outcomes of this drive. She's continuing to go off on him and he hangs up on her. She calls him right back and he answers. She tells him she's only a few minutes away. Just as I'm thinking this is not going to end well, we arrive and he's not home. We sit in front of his place for a little bit, she chews him out for not being home, and then she tells me to drive her to a gas station we passed a few minutes earlier and to drop her off there. By that point, I was more than ready to have her out of my car, so I drove to the gas station. I asked if she was sure she wanted me to drop her off and she told me she'd make arrangements with a friend to get home. She unloaded her things.

I left.

Please don't involve your Uber driver in your relationship drama.

Looking at the Numbers

In looking at the traffic sources for those reading my blog, it appears about 76% of my traffic comes from Google+, about 12% comes from Twitter, and about 5% comes from Facebook. There's no noticeable traffic from Pluspora or MeWe. Maybe people are waiting until G+ goes away or maybe this is telling me I should focus on cross-posting to Twitter and Facebook and ignore Pluspora and MeWe.

Socially Acceptable

The other day, a friend asked if applying deodorant in a public space was socially acceptable and the consensus was that it was definitely socially unacceptable. We have deemed certain things to be acceptable in public spaces but others are not. Just as applying deodorant in public is unacceptable, using nail clippers in public is also greatly frowned upon. Filing your nails in public is generally acceptable, but digging dirt from under your nails is not. Grooming your hair with your fingers is acceptable, but using a comb or brush on your hair in public is not. In the US, using a toothpick to remove food from between your teeth in public is greatly frowned upon, but in many other cultures, it is acceptable to do so. Applying lotion to your hands in public is acceptable, but applying lotion to your face is not. Flossing your teeth in public is highly unacceptable. So how do we decide that certain elements of personal care and grooming are acceptable in public spaces but others are not? Why are there certain circumstances when normally unacceptable behaviors are fully acceptable?