Cab Lady

I was getting a cab ride from the airport to hotel at 11:30pm.  The cab was a minivan with the middle seats taken out - 100% legroom, people.  Beautiful.  The cab was also heavily perfumed and it hurt my eyes a little.  It was driven by a 50-ish woman who introduced herself as "Cab Lady".

Cab Lady was chatty and got started right away:  She had just that very evening discovered a hamburger called the "Baconator":  She had gone home to take the kids out to dinner before hitting the evening shift.  They usually do mexican, but the kids wanted Wendy's, so she figured it would be ok.  She was a bit shocked at the price in the end - $34 bucks - she might as WELL have gone out for mexican.

BUT her son and his friend, they are teenagers and they eat a whole lot, but a double baconator was enough for each of them - they could barely stuff the fries into their mouths.  That's a whole lot of meat, according to Cab Lady.  She got one for herself, and could barely finish it.  It's a lot bigger than she was expecting.  And the bacon sure made it good.

We spoke about bacon and how good it is for a while.  I told her about Youtube videos with "Epic Meal Time" - but she didn't seem to know about You Tube, so I didn't press the point.

Her daughter is 10 and has proclaimed herself to be a vegetarian: That's why she got the chicken sandwich instead of a hamburger.  I said I'm pretty sure that's not vegetarianism - that chicken is pretty much "meat", and she said "maybe not a vegetarian, maybe she said she's a 'vegan' - what's the one where you don't eat anything with a face?"  I pointed out that chickens do actually have faces.  She laughed, and said "she's still new at this whole vegan thing, still figuring it out."

As we drove past a Burger King, she said she'd probably stop back there on the way back to the airport - she knew there'd be a lot more rides tonight because lots of flights got delayed.  She's got a taste for a BK Fish Sandwich - it's fish, but all done up like a Whopper.  Mmmmmm it's tasty.  And fish is good for you.

Nearing the hotel, we passed Shipley's Do-Nut:  She had just brought a box of Shipley's in to the dispatch office, to thank one of the dispatchers for helping her out with a shift, but you can't show favoritism, so she brought them all donuts, but her favorite knew the score, so it was all good.  She brought in 4 dozen for the ladies, and when she came back in the afternoon, they hadn't even eaten HALF of them.

Shipley's is a Houston Original - they tried to bring Krispy Kreme in, but we showed them the door, Shipley's are where it's AT.  The best part is that they glaze the donut and THEN put the chocolate icing on it - see at Dunkin they put the chocolate on a dry donut - that doesn't work as well.

(Editor's note - today I did walk over to the Shipley's Do-Nut and tried a glazed and I am here to tell you it IS wonderful and MUCH better than either Dunkin OR Krispy.  And they do spell it Do-Nut)

(Editor's SECONDARY NOTE:  Mark Loesch used to call Shelly's Wood Roast restaurant on 394 "Shipley's Wood-Chuck"  I got wistful for Mark while eating that do-nut)

A mere block away from my hotel, Cab Lady asked if I remembered what the turn was, and I said "I think it's the next block up, but if you miss it, you can just drop me off, no worries".  She thanked me and said not a week ago she was driving a rude man to this very hotel and she missed the turn, and the man yelled at her, despite the fact it would be a quick turn around.  Well she was not going to have any of THAT, so she stopped the cab and said "get out - you do not get to be rude to me.  And I don't want your money".  The man turned red and sputtered...  but Cab Lady was all right with that because in her many years on this earth, she has learned that she does NOT need to tolerate rude people.

And because she did not take the man's money, he cannot complain to the cab commission.

That was the story of my ride with Cab Lady.