Taxi Wars

Last night, I went to a screening of The Upside of Anger, which was pretty good. Anyway, the theatre was right near the MCI Center, where the ACC tournament was being played last night. It just so happened that we got out around the same time as a basketball game. Erika and I were trying to get a cab. We finally hailed one, and when we got over there, some guy had jumped into the front seat.

DC has this unfortunate rule that cabs are allowed to take more than one person in one trip, as long as it won't take you more than 5 blocks out of your way. So the cab driver tried to convince us to share. Erika asked the guy where he was going, and he said, "Northwest." um, yeah, we were already *in* Northwest. So I say, "um, where in Northwest?" and he says, "the Black Cat." At which point, Erika starts saying, "you pulled over for us, not him!" and I'm saying, "the Black Cat is no where near where we want to go!" Clearly, the guy knew the cab had pulled over for us. Why else did he hop into the front seat?

We ended up getting out, and getting another cab. While we were waiting for another cab to come by, this guy came up to me and asked me if I knew where the 9:30 Club was. I told him on V St. He then asked for walking directions, and when I said it was too far to walk, he said he wanted to sightsee on the way there. There's not a lot to see in between Chinatown and V St, and it's certainly not something I'd chose to walk in the daytime, let alone at night. I hope he survived.