Distant Realizations in the Uber Driver Ventures -- Uber Driving Ventures of 8-26-16

The week before, I had attended a camping trip where I began feeling a restored faith in humanity. It took me awhile to finally write this story and I came back from an additional camping trip yesterday.

With the state of the world being where it is, with hatred and a history of people not being very nice to me, the exact opposite has been occurring lately. At my camping trip, at 4:30am on the last night of partying, I was hanging out at one of the campsites far away from mine and everyone wanted to go to sleep. Everyone except for me hanging out at that time was staying at the area we were at. One of the people I was hanging out with was kind enough to walk me back to my camp without any expectations besides being a kind soul.

Tips while driving for Uber and even Lyft where you can tip in the app are rare and this night I was lucky enough to receive a pretty penny in tips. I will never take this day for granted.

It was about 1am or so on a Saturday night and I was doing my usual weekend driving rounds. I ended up in Lincoln Park on somewhere around Halsted and Ashland picking people up from the Alinea restaurant (an expensive place with Michelin stars aka it's very very good). These people (a couple, 1 man, 1 woman) had spent $1750 dollars for the pair of them. If I ever spent that much money on food and was able to afford it, I'd melt! Their ride request ended up being all the way to Johnsburg, IL, which is in Mchenry County aka about an hour and 15 minutes of a drive. At least I knew I would get a hefty penny because there was 1.5 surge. I needed it that day too.

During my driving ventures to the land of far away, I was mostly having a talk with the woman because after a short while, the man probably had a food baby and lavish drinks and fell asleep (only excuse for passing out in my back seat because I'm used to passing out in my friend's cars). We were talking about careers. Her husband had owned the family car dealership in McHenry County and she was an account manager who worked from home. They had been married for a little bit and were in the process of bettering their lives... and taking a spontaneous trip to an expensive restaurant. It eventually got on the topic of relationships and dating, especially with a female. I mentioned how I would cry rainbow tears and kiss the floor if a man took me to TGI Fridays and treated me (using this place as an example) since I've been treated poorly by many, especially men and boyfriends. My luck is so bad I doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize the shit luck I have, hence why I've abstained from dating for the past 15 months. After I dropped the couple off in their nice home, they gave me a 20 dollar tip (the ride was 75 dollars after surge and still my priciest ride to date). I've been pretty down on my monetary luck lately and people rarely tip with Uber or Lyft at all; I was ready to cry, but managed to hold myself together. I expressed my gratitude and was onto my next adventure in Johnsburg, Illinois, which is generally way out of Uber scope, especially at about 2:30am at that point.

After that ride, it was "peemergency" o'clock. I am very unfamiliar with that area and didn't know where the nearest 24 hour Jewel or Walmart was. I come prepared with accessories in case I have to pee and can't make it to the nearest bathroom facility. I drove a few blocks down the road and saw a giant open area of grass in a place where it was very dark. I pulled into the grass, turned my lights off, did my business discretely, and drove a few more blocks to chill out for a few minutes and text my friends to see if I would get any rides. I sent my first text message to my friend who was still awake and got a ride from Johnsburg to McHenry (about a 15 minute drive). I take this fellow from a bar to back home and we had a decent conversation. I then drive a few more blocks to pull over and sit on my phone for about 10-15 minutes to see if anyone would summon me. Surely enough, a few minutes later, I was summoned 25 minutes away to Crystal Lake. I normally don't accept rides that far away and also needed gas in my car. I figured because it was about after 3am and I was far away from Uber scope. I also didn't want to get canceled on and waste my time. Due to what time it was, I figured someone would be needing a ride to O'Hare airport and accepted the ride with a lot of reluctance. Several closed gas stations later, I eventually find one while praying the ride requester doesn't cancel on me. To top it off, the ride requester also dropped a pin, which means they didn't give me an exact address and I could be driving several blocks away from where the person actually is.

I eventually arrived at this approximate location about 30-35 minutes later, still not being canceled on, and called the person. It turns out the ride requester was actually requesting it for his friend down the street and I need to get ahold of her instead. I eventually end up getting a hold of her and finding her. I ended up taking her to Hoffman Estates, which was 35 minutes away from where I was and it was towards going back to Chicago. I end up having a conversation with this 19 year old girl who walked into my car and she seemed like someone I would be slightly interested in being friends with, though she had a very troubled past (ex lots of miscarriages and her dad recently passed away). The 35 minute ride ends up finishing and it's now almost 4am. I get this young lady to her friend's house and he also gives me a 20 dollar tip. I was ready to hypothetically piss myself because I've never received more than like 17 18 dollars in tips in a night if I'm lucky. So I made 40 dollars in tips that night. Her friend whose house I was dropping her off at, a 42 year old gay male (aka way older than someone I'd comfortably hang out with) asked me if I wanted to stay and chill awhile. My unsafe senses weren't tingling and I had been lacking social interaction due to working so much and not having seen my friends for awhile. We chilled outside this dude's garage for about 3 hours until we were all exhausted and wanted to go to sleep. It wasn't an uncomfortable encounter, but it was slightly awkward... plus the young lady was dealing with drama with one of her ex boyfriends, which I didn't want to listen to. At about 7am, I end up going home and passing the fuck out (on my bed).

Even when you're down on your luck, if you're kind to others on a regular basis, kindness will spontaneously be returned to you. There's always faith to be held onto in humanity, even in this ridiculousness. Thank you kind tippers out there! Kindness will always be appreciated and I will continue to pay it forward!