To continue the second part of the story of my birthday rite of passage, I will tell you about my cab ride home.

To recap: I was stranded outside the city with a broken bike in a hail storm. Leaving my bike to the mercy of the winds, I got into a cab to go home. Car 27313 was not a regular cab. Sami was going to make sure that my birthday adventure continued… 

I got into the car feeling pretty chatty, and started to tell him about my day so far. Sami got straight to the point. “So you just graduated, what do you want to do?”

“Well, I’d like to write”

Sami shakes his head and looks at me through the rear-view mirror.

“No. You can’t do that. No one reads anymore. With the internet, no one reads. What else do you like to do?”

We continue to chat and I ask him if he likes living in this city. He responds by asking if I’ve ever been in love. Just go with it, at this point…

“Once,” I tell him, “but it wasn’t returned.”

“How old was he? Or she, you never know these days”

“He was my age”

“He’s young, he just wants to have fun. So should you. Do you want to have fun?”

He tells me I need to have fun. I tell him i’m trying, and that this city is just not good for guys.

“No. It’s not the city, this is how it is everywhere. I have so many beautiful, not to say that you aren’t beautiful, women coming into my cab, women who have no boyfriends. They come into my cab and I say, ‘How can you not be married?’ And they say ‘Because no one ever asked.’ No one wanted to! Men these days want to have fun. If you want serious go for someone in their thirties, but women should have fun too. So my wife sleeps around, I don’t have a headache anymore! When you’re married 35 years you don’t love the person you’re married to anymore!”

(I hope that’s not true in all cases! and LOLZ about the headache thing!)

Sami then launches into an elaborate story of how he gave advice to a young married woman who wanted to have an affair with a co-worker. Driving her downtown from the airport, Sami advised her to have a one-night-stand and see how it went. If she was into it, go for the office fling. If not, forget it.

Sami turned off the meter as the car idled in front of my house and he finished his story. 

“Sometimes you see things in porn that you want to try but you’re too shy to ask your boyfriend, so you go elsewhere to try it. All i’m saying is there are more than 69 positions in sex, if you know what I mean!”

At this point, I am beyond being surprised at what the world has thrown at me so I laugh, “Yeah, thanks. Best ride ever!”

__________________________________________________________________________________

I’ve been thinking about that conversation for a few weeks now.

Last night I was speed-walking to the liquor store, in the zone with my music, and a guy stopped me.

“Uh Excuse me?”

I sort of stop and take one earbud out.

“Yeah?”

“What’s your name?”

And I knew what was up.

“Annik.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m just going to meet my friends”

“Do you have a phone number? I’ll call you and we can hang out.”

“No, sorry”

And he seems pretty relaxed and just sort of playful about it. Smiling at me, he sort of whines “Why?”

“Sorry, bye.”

And we’re both smiling. I was flattered, because this was a sort of G-style latino who was hitting on me when I was wearing my nerdy yellow-wool sweater and my hair was all messed from the rain. I began to wonder, Is this what Sami meant by having fun? Should I have random sex simply because i’m young and I could? I don’t think I will, but I sometimes wonder if i’m wasting some potential or some privilege by not engaging…

Also wondering about the sort of stigma of talking to someone on the street. It should actually be thought of as a step above the bar, because you’re usually sober on the street!

Does she seem to be ‘having fun’?

hahaha

Not into it.

Annik