Tons of Money Ventures on 11-11-17

I guess 11-11 is a lucky day!

Today in dank money land while logged into Uber, I started driving at about 4:50pm. My first hour and a half of rides were all surged and then I got a ride to Des Plaines from the Ogalvie train station. I ended up getting an Uber Eats order that took about an hour because the restaurant messed up the order (and gave me a free soda) and I stopped for gas and to the bathroom before picking up the food. It was also almost a 15min drive each way and I got mildly lost on the way there because I had no idea where then place was and had to make an educated guess. At least they gave me a $3 tip. I then ended up at Lake Forest College/Lake Bluff. When I ended up getting to Lake Forest College a second time, I ended up getting a ride to Schaumburg with 3 football players and a female who I talked to about life for awhile. The subsequent ride after that, 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! I was going to go home, but didn't want to drive home from Naperville without a passenger and turned on my destination filter. I ended up getting a ride from downtown Naperville to further east in Naperville and decided to head home with my destination filter still on. I was driving home and got a ping in Lombard. As I'm pulling up to the condo complex, I drive around twice until I find the right place. I eventually get there and wait for the passengers for awhile. As I'm contemplating canceling, 2 men walked into my car. It was one of their birthdays and I took them to a strip club in Stone Park. As I pulled into the rideshare drop off area, a nice elderly man asks me how many people I dropped off and proceeded to tell me how you receive $10 for each person you drop off. He also gave me a bunch of free coupons to get free cover for entry into the club. After receiving a $20 bill, I turned my app off at around 12:50am and got home around 1:30am. 

What a day! There were a few times Uber and Lyft were turned on simultaneously, but Uber got me a ride first. No airport rides. I drove 8 hours, almost 200 miles and 3/4 tank of gas. I ranged from Lake Forest to Naperville, received some tip money as well, and made over $250 before gas. One thing I realized driving is that I'm paying close to the amount or more in gas than my rent. What the actual fuck? Anywho, time to relax. I earned it! Until tomorrow, oh so lovely road! 

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!

Passengers Who Inspire Me

1. One of my passengers on Friday night (9-1-17) who was ironically very drunk inspired me to want to see my parents more and not focus on money too much. She told me her mom died at age 10 and she wishes she had a mom and to not take my parents being alive, together, and healthy ish for granted. She's right. My mom had texted me last night when I was busy driving and texted me again just now. I decided that after my billmergency is over and I don't have to worry about bills for awhile, I should go see my parents... at least every once in awhile (and in the next couple days)!

Passengers Who Get the Middle Finger From Me (As I Drive Off and Laugh)

1. Welp, I had to give someone the finger for the first time in awhile yesterday (9-3-17) and it was pretty funny. I was in a pool ride and already had 2 men in my car and was going to go yoink the 3rd passenger (a female). I've had more issues with belligerent men, but my golden rule is to respect me even if you're drunk at 8pm on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. The person called me and was being pretty rude, but I was stuck in traffic and the GPS may have had me pick up other people instead of her, which is why she may have been waiting a bit even though my GPS didn't say so. I eventually pull up next to her, blocking traffic and getting honked at, and wait for a solid 3 minutes. She calls me again, yelling into the phone and I'm like, "get in the car???" She then starts yelling at herself while my current passengers tried to flag her into the car. After a bit longer of hearing her yell at herself, the men told me to drive away from her. I agreed and drove off as she yelled "what the fuck". I laughed and they high fived each other. Bye bitch! ;) ;) ;) No rude people allowed!

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...

What It's Like to Drive for UberEats

On Tuesday (6-6-17), I completed my first UberEats ride. At first I didn't know what to expect, but the steps in the Uber app are less confusing than I anticipated.

First, when you're driving around and logged into the Uber Partner app, you'll see a request pop up as "meal". You accept the request the same way you accept a normal ride. You drive to the restaurant and the order is waiting for you (unless the restaurant is randomly closed). You pick up the food and denote in the app your food has been picked up. Then, you swipe the green bar to start the delivery and you drive to the person's place of dwelling. After that, you drop off the food to the person, denote in the app the food has been successfully delivered, and swipe the green bar to complete the trip. Unfortunately, unlike regular delivery drivers, Uber passengers (or users) generally don't tip, so don't expect one.

At least with UberEats, you don't have to deal with drunk people! Be careful though, a downfall is to be careful where you park or stall, because you can possibly get a ticket if you do it wrong, especially in Chicago!

Stay safe, everyone and happy Uber driving!

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!