My First Uber Ride

No joke.  Today was my first solo Uber ride, and only my 2^nd Uber ride ever.  I only know what Uber even is because of a date last year (he's significantly older than I am and had to explain it to me).  And I only took it out of complete necessity because I needed to pick up my car from getting service, and I’m now forced to swing things on my own since my parents moved earlier today.

[Side note, my car is fixed, and it’s exactly what I thought it was.  We went ahead and replaced the ignition coil in the last cylinder, too, so hopefully something like this won’t happen again.  Knock on wood….]

It took me a minute to figure out how to actually get an Uber.  Apparently, I’m technologically impaired.  But I’ve come to accept this, and I’ve moved on.

After finally figuring it out and summoning my car, my random OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxiety set it, and I of course instantly believed that I was waiting for the man who was going to kill me to show up.  So, I took a screen shot of the guy who was coming, sent it to Lulu, and asked him to avenge me if he never heard from me again.

My Uber showed up and I reluctantly got in.  I did, after all, need to pick up my car.  About 30 seconds after I sat down and verified our destination…

Driver:  I don’t feel well.  What kind of medicine should I take?
Me:  what the fuck kind of question is that?! Um. What?
Driver:  my stomach is upset.  What kind of medicine should I take?
Me:  um.  Pepto?  Or you could ask the pharmacist for a suggestion.

He then proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t have anyone here that he can ask these kinds of questions to, because he’s from New Delhi, and that’s where his family still is.  Oh, ok.  That makes asking total strangers for medical advice completely legit.

Then, his cell phone rang, and he pulled into a parking lot to answer it.  Um.  Aren’t I paying for distance AND time?  He only parked for a half second before getting back out on the road, but he did carry on quite the conversation with a mystery person in a mystery language.  I shared this with Lulu, and he just said “that’s sketchy.”  This did nothing to alleviate my OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxiety, and I immediately began to 100% believe I was going to be sold into some kind of slavery.

After he got off the phone, my Uber driver told me his entire life story, condensed into about 7 minutes.  He moved to American to make money, and he worked as a truck driver and at a gas station before someone told him to go become an electrician.  He took that advice, and 18 months later, he found a really good job.  Now he drives The Uber in the afternoons and evenings just to keep his mind busy.  He lives with 6 other people and detailed the cost of each of his bills (rent, cell phone, food, etc).  He’s saving money so when his citizenship comes through, he can work on bringing his mom over here.  His sister is married, so he’s leaving her in New Delhi.

It was an overwhelming amount of information for what turned out to be a $9 ride.  I did make it safely to my destination, however, and it was free since it was my first ride with The Uber.  All in all, pretty good.  And none of my OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxieties came true, so, ya know, bonus.