F*@&#*ING CABS!

Cab drivers are jerks.

Last night Greg and I stopped at the Target near our house to pick up a few DVDs. It was raining and windy as Ernesto was starting to roll into New York. We are waiting on a busy street trying to catch a cab when one coming from the wrong direction sees us. The guy is in the right lane going the other way on a 4 lane street. He stops traffic, hangs out until he can make the u-turn in the middle of the street and finally make his way to us. We waited for the guy instead of moving on since he was going through all the effort. He pulls up with his doors locked and rolls down the window to ask where we are going. We say where (it was close) and he just pulls away saying that he's headed to Manhattan. We are pissed. We walk a little further and another one pulls up in the middle of the street in a puddle. I'm balancing on one little bit of dry-ish street to find this one too has his doors locked, rolls down his window and asks where we're going. Greg is seriously frustrated and yells, "Open the damn door!" Surprisingly, he did. We get in and this guy pretends he doesn't know how to get where we are going (which he certainly does). We aren't exactly sure either because we don't know all the names of the streets yet. As we are stopped at the first light I tell him he can turn on this street to get back to the main street we are familiar with. He snottily remarks, "You can't turn here, can't you see the huge sign on the street? No left turn." To which Greg replies, "Hey man, we are in the back seat, so no, we can't see the signs at the top of the lightposts. Don't talk to us like we are morons." So now the cabbie is pissed, Greg is pissed, and I'm worried we are going to get dumped somewhere else where we can't get a cab in the rain. Finally we get home and get out, and as we are exiting the cab Greg turns around and says, "You know, you can't pick and choose your fare, you have to take everyone." Then the cabbie starts yelling and arguing with him. Greg closes the door and this guy rolls down his window and continues to yell at us as we are walking down the street. As another guy walks up to get in the cab he locks the doors and asks where he's going.

Now, cabbies are obligated to take you anywhere you want to go in the five boroughs. You also have a right to a cabbie that speaks fluent english, drives safely, dosn't honk unless for safety reasons and doesn't talk on a cell phone. Well, we all know the first is unlikely and the last few are downright impossible. But we let these slide. But making someone stand in a puddle, in the rain, in the middle of a busy street is insane. For this to happen twice in a row is worse.

We should have written down his number and reported him, but we were just too pissed.

Tomorrow, moving day. With luck they will show up in the morning as promised and and we will spend the afternoon with Jerry, Jenna and some of their friends at the Bronx Zoo. I'm not holding my breath.