Thinking About the Epic Money Misadventures on 9-5-17

Today and yesterday were my first couple of runs with handing out my business cards. Thanks to all my passengers who took them!

This morning when I was driving rush hour, I had just finished a brief job hunting session while sitting in the O'Hare tnp lot where you wait for a ride out of the airport, drove home some passengers who didn't speak much English, and thought about my job woes. The next passenger named Tim entered my car and said he had an IT job. I asked him what job he had and he said he was a systems analyst with a bunch of certifications. I would get some certifications, but definitely can't afford those right now let alone the infinite car maintenance I'm going to need. I ended up complaining about my job woes because I have been feeling very lost in regards to my career path and am stressed out about not making enough money/barely making it by. What I gained from the conversation besides trying to make myself feel better about my current situation is I should maybe make an appointment with a career counselor. The next passenger (group of passengers because it was a family and I talked to the husband) had just finished his military service and now works as border patrol. Back when I was in college, I had random thoughts of possibly joining the military, but was not informed enough of what the military truly entails and decided to put those thoughts on the shelf. Today, they were revisited because he told me being in the military can be a lucrative career, you get paid, you get tax breaks, health benefits, you have to be in good shape, and most of all, it would get me unstuck from this sticky money situation. I began feeling even more lost about my career misadventures and almost cried in front of him (luckily I was wearing sunglasses anyway). After my conversations with this kind man, I have decided I need WAY more information about the military if I even hypothetically want to join because I don't even know which branch I'd join. He did tell me the Air Force and the Navy are the most laid back. I've thought about the National Guard too, but I have no idea. This thought is going back on the shelf once again.

As the day progressed, I began spawning motivation from talking to my passengers. The very last passenger I had before ending my day was a ride to O'Hare for the fourth time and I began telling her about my rideshare storytelling blog. She made me realize how I need to take 5 minutes of my day to realize what I am thankful to have. For example, I made a pitstop at the River Road Rosemont McDonald's and saw a truck pull into the gas station with a flat tire and was thankful my car is in one functioning healthy piece. I am also thankful to have my health. She told me a story about how a lady she works with has a 2 year old son with a blood disorder where his blood doesn't produce white blood cells, had to have 2 stem cell transfusions, and has been in the hospital for 106 days straight. I'm thankful to have never been in the hospital in my adult life (or very much in general). I was then telling her about how some illnesses are induced by stress and I need to chill out and not let my stress win so I can stay healthy. I was telling her about my 2 most recent blog posts about passengers who I drove away from and laughed and how a drunk lady inspired me to stop focusing on money and bills all the time because I wouldn't ever be happy if I blew off people who really matter and to go see my parents. I will probably see them soon! Right before I dropped her off at the airport, she took a business card and went on her way.

After talking with this last lady, I decided I had driven enough and decided to go home and stay home. When I realized I had some extra time and was still pretty awake, I figured out the answer to my job woes is that I need to keep job hunting and find a job so I don't have to drive my poor grandma-aged car into the ground from rideshare driving and can have a steady paycheck again, thus, eliminating my monetary woes. When I finally had a moment to check my emails, one of the companies I applied to for a technical writer (which is the primary job I want) had responded to my application. Now is the time to solve the puzzle! Off to my job hunting ventures!

Misadventures of Driving in Chicago at Night as a Young Attractive Female

1. The epic misadventures of Rebs in Maywood: I picked up some dude at about 1:30am who was likely stoned out of his mind. It was a 5min Lyft line. About 2min into the ride we get stuck at a freight train. We talked for a bit and he asked to come in the front seat. I was like sure why not. Then he starts asking me questions about sex, which is a very uncomfortable subject for me. He then starts asking me questions about me and liking black dudes/black dick and I told him I don't judge on skin color, but have never dated a black guy. We eventually get to his place and he asks to do sexual stuff and smoke with me. I don't give my passengers sexual favors and hookups aren't my jam. He then pulls out his dick like 3x asking me to do stuff with it. I tell him no it makes me feel uncomfortable. He asked what if he did the favor to me and I told him I wasn't down. He asked me to touch his dick and I said no. He asks me again and I again tell him that sexual situations make me uncomfortable. He also offered me weed and I said no. Then I mentioned sexual encounters scare me, which is mostly true, and he finally left and got the message. This was after about 10-15min of sitting outside his apartment. After all of this was over, I had super peemergency (needing to pee and get to a bathroom within a few minutes or else) and in Maywood, there's nothing open 24hrs nearby. I had no choice. For the first time in several months, I had to pee in an alley. When I was putting my shorts back on, another car came up  behind me and only my underwear were on. I jumped into the car and fled immediately. As I was jumping in the car, people were coming outside. Whoops! Glad no one saw me... I hope. Needless to say, that wasn't fun and hope stupid idiots don't harass me for sexual favors anymore while I'm focused on making money. No thanks and goodbye. I gave him 1 star!

2. The saga continues and it is fucking MONDAY MORNING... I pick up some dude named Jason at about 4:30am for an Uber pool ride from Oak Lawn/Bridgeview and bring him to Burbank for a 15min ride back to his house. He has a Mercedes and his own business. Cool. He's cute. Also cool. I tell him about my broke misadventures and how it's been slow all day and have needed to work a lot. I also told him I was creeped on 3 hours prior. This fucker offers me 100 bucks to have sex with him. As desperate as I am for money, I spent about 10min finding ways to nicely tell him no, including pulling lies out of my pocket. I then said I'm not down to meet anyone right now and he got mad and left. He got 1 star too. Goodbye turd muffin I don't feel like prostituting myself. No thanks! He also was likely drunk or on drugs... I'd rather deal with 6 loud drunks calling me Becky... I need to stop driving at night...

Fares Over 50 Dollars

1. I drove a couple home from Alinea to Johnsburg and they gave me 20 dollars as a tip. This was also a 75 dollar and my longest and largest fare! They also just spent 1750 dollars between the two of them! The woman talked about relationships with me and the man fell asleep in my back seat from his wine. It was also 1:30am on a Friday night! This happened August 2016!

2. My 48 dollar ride was a ride from the south loop to Markham, IL and the person ordered an Uber XL for themselves! This happened sometime around November 2016!

3 (and 4). I took a nap when I had planned on driving and started at 2:30am. Whoops! My first ride ended up being from the Belmont Red Line all the way to the Pingree Grove Metra Station in Crystal Lake on a 1.1 surge 55 minute Uber ride. Thanks for the 54 dollar ride right off the bat. Two rides later, back to Midway Airport from Crystal Lake for 73 dollars plus a 10 dollar tip for about an hour Lyft ride! It's 4:40am Saturday morning now and I don't have to go back empty. Sweetness! :D This happened on May 27, 2017!

5. After I went from Schaumburg to the loop for a nice long adventure, by that time I needed to pick up my roommate friend from work as it was almost 11pm. As I was about to turn my app off, I received multiple 1.7x surge pings because a concert just got out at the Chicago Theater. The very last ping ended up being a 1.7x surge fare long trip 45+min ride and I decided to take it (sorry roommate friend). The ride ended up being $52 from the loop to the Naperville train station because these young parents had to get home and not spend as much on a babysitter even though the Uber ride cost more than waiting an extra hour at Union Station. Thanks guys! That was my biggest fare in awhile! This happened on November 11, 2017!