Too Generous

I gave this afternoon's taxi driver way too generous of a tip.

 

I'm a pretty good tipper when it comes to taxi drivers.  20%, usually.  And with credit card payment, it makes it even easier.

 

So I took a bus back in from my asylum hearing and got dropped off at Port Authority.  It was bitterly cold (much colder than in Jersey) and I grabbed a cab.  The guy was not a great driver at all, stopping short all the time, which did wonders for my motion sickness from the bus.

 

We get to the office and he pulls over.  I pay by credit card.  I wait for receipt.  He starts yelling at me to get out of the car because the van behind him is beeping him.  I say I want the receipt.  (I want to be reimbursed and he is obligated to give me the receipt!)  He says he'll give it to me out the window but just to get out because of the van.

 

I open the door.

 

Some lady was trying to bike between the parked car and the taxi.  There are no bike lanes on 6th Avenue.  This apparently became MY fault.

 

Lady to me: "Watch it! You're trying to kill someone!"

I... opened... the... car... door....

 

I cannot see out the door!  I have no mirror.  STFU.  I am not TRYING to kill anyone.  The taxi driver yelled at me to open the door and I obliged.  You saw a stopped taxi.  What possessed YOU to try to ride between them?  Stopped taxi usually means someone's getting out, right?  And why would I get out on the other side with moving traffic?  Common sense, do you have any?

 

(And blah blah blah, she kept going... and then...)

 

Lady to taxi driver: "Why did you let her do that?"

 

What am I, 4?  Why are you talking about me in such a condescending tone of voice as I'm standing right there glaring at you?  It doesn't sound as bad written but the smug superiority dripping from her tone of voice because she was riding a bike.  Spare me.  I have sympathy for bikers in that it's not a very bike-friendly city but don't accuse me of attempted murder because of your choice (when common sense clearly could have dictated another choice) and because I opened the door because my taxi driver was repeatedly yelling at me to get out of the damn cab.  And then to assert that he could control my actions and would "let" me out of the cab? What a patronizing assumption.

 

Not to mention that he DID end up dictating my actions as he WAS the one berating me to get OUT of the cab.

 

So pissed off.  It's bad enough that I was arriving at the office today at 4:30 pm.  I didn't need that crap from her... especially since she's likely on her way HOME from work.  STFU.

 

And to the taxi driver who was yelling?  I'm avoiding your medallion number from now on.  I didn't need to be yelled at AFTER I gave you a pretty damn good tip.  I wish I didn't.  And guess what? You completely suck as a driver too. 

 

Ridiculous.  Now to try to work...