This past weekend EVERYONE was in a GREAT mood.  It was the first really nice Spring weekend this year.  The Farmer’s Market was a zoo, Crazylegs happened, the sun was out and everyone was being active.  Despite half the city riding their bikes and skateboards, business was booming.

I’ll start this entry with a shout-out to Trixie, Megalomaniac, and Siren for callin’ me during a dip in business to give me a sweet little ride with awesome lady passengers.  It’s always a pleasure to have friends in my cab.  ❤

This happened at the airport.  It seems like flights are getting smaller and smaller every day.

On a more serious note:  I chastised someone about something they said to me last night.  The ride was maybe 5 blocks long at approximately 2am.  A single male student going from a deluxe student apartment building to a different student apartment building.  I waited about 7 minutes after I got “on the way out” from the office when I had asked them to call him down.  Normally the official amount of time we wait is 5 minutes, but this deluxe apartment building has a notoriously “slow elevator”.  I’m unsure if that’s the truth or if ALL the students that come down just take their time.

The fare was $4.70, he handed me a $5 bill and said “Keep the change,” as he started opening the door.  Normally I wouldn’t say anything, but lately I’ve been running low on patience.  I figured it’d be best to just let him know that if he says “Keep the change” in this sort of situation, it will most likely be taken as an insult, an additional dig to a shitty tip.  While he is probably just naive and genuinely wanted me to keep the $0.30 because he didn’t want to deal with silver, I wanted to enlighten him on the cultural subtext.  I was civil and nice about it, though.

“Oh, I just didn’t think you would have change for a $20,” he said.  Obviously I would have change for a $20, he just felt like he needed to give me an excuse.  I refused any tip because I DEFINITELY didn’t want to feel like I was coercing him into tipping me.  I just let him know not to say that again if a similar situation occurred.  He asked “Well what SHOULD I say?”  I said “‘Here ya go, thank you,’ is just fine.”

I probably should have mentioned that if you feel guilty about not tipping and you have money in your wallet, you should probably just tip.  If you don’t have the money to tip, it’s alright to tell someone that.  If you consistently don’t have money to tip, you might want to consider alternative tipping like origami, flowers, notes of appreciation, or other things that might be in your capacity to give.

Last night I had another passenger who was completely oblivious to etiquette.   It was a ride from the West side strip club to a hotel nearby.  He mentioned how he walked on his way to the strip club, but at night it was probably safer to get a ride back.  Considering half a mile of the walk was on a 2 lane highway with a 55 mph speed limit, I would think it’d be safer in a car no matter what time it was.

During the trip he mentioned how he was only staying in Madison for 2 days.  He was from Austin, in Madison for a conference, and that he worked for a children’s hospital.  As we pulled up to the hotel the meter was at $7.70.  “Can I get a receipt?  Work will be paying for this.”

I maneuver the cab around to the front of this hotel, cut off the meter, and reach for the receipt as he says, “Here’s $8.”  Oh, really?  For a $0.30 tip, I will fill this out completely for you.

pictured is a replica receipt.

Nothing stings like someone telling you they’ll be reimbursed, and then they still don’t tip.  I made sure to write exactly how much he was tipping his driver and also his pick-up.  Seriously dude?  You’re going to try to get the children’s hospital to pay for your ride home from the strip club?  Considering how oblivious he was, he just might turn it in with his other travel receipts.

After I pulled away I counted all the singles he gave me (wooo stripe club singles!), and it turned out he had given me $9.  I feel bad that the girls at the club had to deal with this tight-ass bozo.

Note not related to this entry:  I’ve been entering old stories from a previous private journal.  So far I’ve entered as far back as May 2008 and I will continue to enter older stories.  I apologize for my writing habits and grammar…  they were originally written for just myself and a few friends.  If I get the time I’ll go through them all again and gussy them up for a more enjoyable reading experience.