Uber Therapy

It's embarrassing how many Ubers I've taken since the app has been introduced. There are the daily Ubers I take home from work and then the occasional ride to run errands or a night out. And then in the winter months, when it's too cold for life outside, I have to admit to taking cabs to and from the gym four days a week. (Yes, I go to the gym four days a week. This is the new and improved me.)

And with each vehicle I've taken comes driven by a new special driver. Sometimes we sit in silence, sometimes we get in a heated conversation long after I've arrived at my destination and sometimes they tell me their whole life story while I sit there nodding, preferring the silence.

I've had one driver share his tale of coming to this country from Egypt five years ago to go to school and falling in love with an American girl who he then married after a long courtship. It had been his new wife who suggested he apply for citizenship and who also then became distant once she decided he had married her for the wrong reasons. He got teary eyed telling me how it tore them apart until they eventually divorced. He was now driving for Uber to save up enough money to bring over his parents.

Then there was the driver who decided that he knew better directions than the passenger who took the same route every day for over a year (me). It has recently snowed and the streets had limited access and increased traffic. We got stuck in a stand-still for 30 minutes which he took as an opportunity to ask me on a date. Nothing worse than being stuck in non-moving traffic with a man you have just rejected.

I've heard every horror story from drunken vomit to domestic abuse in the back seat. It's interesting how much information gets shared in a 15 minute ride with a stranger.

But then there was the time my driver mentioned how he had been released from prison that morning. I don't know if that is something he should have been sharing but it didn't end there. I was lucky enough to hear the whole story of how he ended up there! There was a lot of mumbling and bits of the story that I missed but the part I got was that his girl friend of 4 years had hit him numerous times in the face after a minor dispute and he called the cops on her. She wasn't too thrilled about that and retaliated by calling the cops herself and telling them that he had hit her. He told me how he has spent the night in a holding cell and I tried my best to sympathize.

I'm well aware that I bring these conversations upon myself by being personable and so darn cute but I should really start charging for my services.

New Fridge, New Year, New Life

Anyone who has stepped foot into my house within the past two years has met my fridge. And by "fridge" I mean my actual refrigerator and not some cute little house pet I've named "fridge."

My fridge is one of the more unique fridges in that every time it would re-cool itself (roughly every 20 minutes), it would make a loud rumbling sound similar to the sound of a motorcycle revving its engine (except that "motorcycle" would be in the middle of my kitchen.)

But after a short amount of time, we managed to get used to the noises and it became an almost soothing background sound. Our house guests however, never seemed to get used to it.

The noises made it difficult to hear conversations happening 3 feet away. It turned casual dinner parties into screaming fests. It may have increased the overall tension in the household because we were constantly yelling at each other.

During this time, we had an electrician inspect the fridge and determined that it would cost more to fix it than to replace it. We also has a few cocky friends who decided to disregard that professional opinion and attempted to fix it themselves. They tried stuffing the motor with tin foil, they tried kicking the fridge, all with unsuccessful results because abuse is not the answer.

So we gave up and accept the fridge for who he was.

Until one day, we came up with the most brilliant idea: we would buy a NEW one (which the landlord would obviously pay for).

The new fridge was finally ordered but after three failed delivery attempts, I gave up. This was a sign that we weren't supposed to have a quiet house. (In hindsight, it may have just been a sign to never purchase appliances from The Home Depot).

With our last strand of patience, we attempted the purchase from Best Buy and miracle of miracles, they actually came through. They showed up at the crack of down with a few strong men who had to take the front door off the hinges to make room for the new fridge to come through. They may have also broken a few minor household objects but at least we finally had a brand spankin-new refrigerator.

It's shiny and spacious and everything one could look for in a fridge. They may have installed it with the doors on the wrong side but the silence has finally been restored to my house.