Getting too old for this

The pick up comes from a nightclub just over the border in a not great part of the world, a couple of hours before it usually closes. Having been to it before for pick ups, I know the parking lot well, and as I roll up, a heavyset man in his '40s slouches his way into the back seat. "I'm getting too old for this," he says, and I've got him for a 15-minute ride back to his home in a better part of the world.

We chat, and I give him the usual tips for rideshare passengers. It's friendly and we talk for a good part of the ride. It turns out he was in the room for his nephew's coming of age party, and while he was glad to be there for his people, there was no way he was going to be able to stay up late and partake in full foolishness. So he was very glad for my service, and to help him get out of there without complication.

At the drop, he exits, daps... and hands me the one dollar bills that he was, well, clearly going to use for another purpose that evening. Suspiciously crisp.

Not gonna lie; wasn't expecting that, I was kind of touched, and I felt a lot of kinship...

Z is for Zachary, a place to avoid

The Unhappy Hunting Grounds

There are many rideshare shifts that do more than put a few bucks in my pocket. I often genuinely enjoy the work, like talking to people, and providing them a service. I've been doing this now for way too long to be bad at it, and there is just a simple joy in being good at something.

And then there are shifts like today. 

Which included...

> An 18 minute pick up and ride, covering over 5 miles, that netted me... $5.16. With a 15-minute conversation that somehow did not result in a tip. Yeesh.

>  A woman on a shared ride, with another passenger in the car, studiously ignorning her ringing phone. For about, oh, nine minutes. Not that I was keeping track. Or noting that the drop off was to the Zachary Arms apartment complex in Robbinsville, which is a place with (a) many unmarked speed bumps, and (b) many passengers who have inspired low star ratings.

> A man putting a woman in the car for a shared ride, and she doesn't speak English. The platform gave me another rider on the way, which caused her (I think? I don't speak Spanish) to freak out on the phone to her guy, who then proceeds to threaten my ranking in texts for, well, doing my job. As if I can pick up other passengers on the ride when it's *not* a shared ride. 

Resulting in over 6 hours in the app for a gross (very) of... $101. 

So the next time you pay too much for a rush hour ride? 

Know that shifts like this one are *much* more common...

This morning's commute in America

The pick up is for a woman with a non-traditional name. It's a 10 minute drive, and she gets in after a minute of waiting; nothing out of the ordinary. Not unfriendly, but not chatty, so I have the news on (NPR). The coverage is of the Springfield lie about Haitians eating pets, and the subsequent bomb threats, cancellations, stress and worry for the local citizens.

Oh what a piece of work is man, how noble the mind, how gentle the spirit goes my mind, as it always does when people do things that make me not want to be in the same species as them, but as a white guy that's my priviledge to withdraw... and then I realize my passenger is listening to the radio. 

She also needs additional distance, because of a GPS problem, which also happens a lot. So I've got her for a couple of extra minutes, as I take her deep into a housing and offices complex. 

Turns out she works there -- I'm going to guess as a cleaning person, given the hour and the attire -- and she's very grateful that I didn't end the ride a half mile early. She also notes that she's from Haiti, and quickly apologizes for her people, as if they've done anything at all wrong in this mess.

I do my best to assure her that she's got nothing to be sorry about, thank her for her business, and quickly 5-star her while the phone is in her view, but she's off to work. 

Just in case you thought the damage being done here was just to the people in Ohio.

The Princeton-Trenton Area (Eats and Etc.)

I've lived in the same area for 18 years now, because my work used to involve daily commutes to New York and weekly visits to family in Philadelphia. The real estate value tanked after we bought in, but has recovered nicely since, because the direct little secret of Central New Jersey is that We Won The Pandemic. Here's why:

1) Most of the folks in this area who used to commute routinely to New York... don't have to any more. Remote work means that several days of the week spending is now here, not there.

2) When you live here, you are within 100 miles of 1 out of every 10 people who live in the United States. Which means that Amazon, Wayfair, UPS, FedEx and more employ a ton of people, and it's good for an area when there's a lot of employment. 

3) Many of the world's pharmaceutical companies have a strong presence in the area. Something about New Jersey being a much better place to do your business than, say, Europe about 100 years ago. And the pandemic didn't exactly harm Big Pharma.

What all of that has done has just poured rocket fuel on local bars and restaurants, and the fun part about New Jersey is that we've always been among the country's most diverse states. Regardless of your political views, I can attest to this fact: when you want to go out and get a meal, monocultures suck. Not a problem here.

So with all of that as prologue, here are the places I tell people to go to eat surprisingly well (currently as of September 2024), with many options, when they get in the car and ask. Rather than make them all take notes while riding. 

By town:

Princeton -- Cross Culture in the Princeton Shopping Center for Indian is great. So is Mi Espana for Spanish in the same complex, and Lan Ramen on Witherspon and Hulfish in the downtown area. Agricola (farm to table mix) and Mistral (great drinks and deserts) are also solid options downtown, along with Katharine's (French) and the Witherspoon Grill (steak). For something more local, try Contee's on Witherspoon and Guyot for tomato pie. I'm also a big fan of Eno Terro on Route 27, just north of the area. Princeton has some of our best restaurants, but parking and costs are higher here as well. 

Ewing -- Dramatically cheaper and with easier parking, but still collegiate due to the presence of TCNJ. Favorites here include Cafe 72 on Upper Ferry and Bear Tavern for breakfast and lunch, Meatheadz on Business Route 1 for tri-tip cheesesteaks, Mikonos on Scotch Road for Greek, Firkin Tavern and Ajika Ramen for bar food and ramen on Parkway Avenue.

Hamilton -- Jojo's on Quakerbridge for trash pie pizza (it's huge), or Papa's near Route 130 for wildly old school tomato pies, some with brown mustard in the crust. I also love Le Dish on Route 33 for good poke bowls, and El Guajillo, also on Route 33, for authentic Mexican. Killarney's gets crowded, but it's good bar grub. Your dollar goes farther in Hamilton.

Trenton -- Cheapest place in the area, but can be a bit off-putting for the potholes and extra-curricular activities.  Broad Street Diner is reliable, the Rat at Grounds for Sculpture is overpriced but the decor is memorable, and the Smokehouse BBQ place downtown is legit. Try Tir na Nog for traditional Irish, and La Casona on Klockner for Central and South American food.

Bordentown -- I haven't tried enough of these places just yet, because parking is rough and the cops have a very troublesome history, but the Under the Moon Cafe, Old Town Pub and HOB Tavern are all worthwhile. This town is a bit more expensive.

Odds and ends: La Unica in Pennington is basic and adorable Mexican food. Sahara in Skillman is fantastic Middle Eastern food. Roots on Route 1 is fun Chinese, and Seasons 24 is also fine and easy to find, about a mile up the road, also on 1. 

Advice: Don't eat franchised food. Try places in ordinary shopping centers and strip malls. Get away from Princeton, especially Monday through Thursday, when the pharma crowds are in town and tables are hard to find. And if you have others you like, add in the comments. I try to find a new place every week, and haven't exhausted the area in two years of trying.

-- 

Playing the part

This week is a lot, because one of the platforms is offering a bonus for too many rides. I have Wednesday off for the federal holiday, and Friday off becuase I'm starting to get into use or lose mode with "vacation" (i.e., full-time rideshare) days.

So I set the course for local and short and densely populated, which means Trenton. 

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

About two hours into my shift, I get a ping for a guy in a not great part of town, going to a high rise that I've dropped people off at before. The high rise is also in a not great part of town. 

He gets in after a couple of minutes with two young boys, and it's obvious from their conversation that (a) they both want to stay with him, and (b) only one of them is going to, because there's a shared custody situation. He's attentive to the kids and the kids aren't unruly, so it's all fine. We roll the required ten minutes without incident.

I get to the high rise, and my adult fare asks me to do the thing I was going to do anyway, which is go to the back entrance where the drop is safer, and historically where most people want to get out. It's the first of two stops. He's dropping one boy off and taking the other back to his original pick up point.

 As I get close, I have to pull around a parked police car with lights flashing. Both my passenger and me check out the cops with dull surprise. He starts shepherding the kids to the entrance and elevator, then stops to talk to me. 

"Normally I just get him to the elevator and he knows where to go, but with the cops here..."

I wave him on. "Go ahead, I'll be right here."

And he walks on, guiding the kids... which is when another three cop cars with full lights join the first one, and now we've got the evening's entertainment. A forceful arrest in the lobby my guy needs to go in, with resistance and swings from a guy in a white tank top, swinging without a whole lot of effect or conviction as the cops overwhelm him with tonnage. 

We get a second act of entertainment as a woman who seems connected to Offender #1 decides that similar physical activities are a good idea, only with more protestions and screaming.

I could, at this moment, end the ride. There's no personal effects in the car from the passenger, rideshare does not pay nearly enough to risk much of anything for, and I might be making the cops nervous with my presence. It rarely goes well for anyone when cops are nervous.

First rule of rideshare; get home safe. 

This could break that, no?

Only the whole thing seems, well, like everyone's just playing the part. No one has pulled out a serious weapon, the wild swings aren't landing, and the cops aren't going for full beatdown. 

I don't feel in any way unsafe. 

I feel unseen. 

And, well, I'm not supposed to end a multi-stop ride unless the passenger requests it, or disappears for over five minutes. 

So I look at the clock, and with two minutes left to go he texts me to say he's in the elevator again, just in time for the summer squall of cops and Jerry Springer Show guests to lose their cardio and start talking to each other like there's nothing all that special going on, 

Because, well, there wasn't. It's Trenton.

My man comes back with a minute to spare. We chat a bit about his adventure, and how fortunate he was to get his charges into the elevator before the perforrmance. 

For the next ten minutes on the ride back, he and I both play the role of ordinary guy with nothing to see here, both of us doing that for, I really think, the child more than each other. This boy has got enough to deal with in the world without us putting jet fuel into his reality of Childhood Trauma, so we both pretend there was nothing extraordinary going on here, or that this kind of life imitating art is, well, neither. 

My passenger is grateful that I stayed, knows that I didn't have to, and... does not tip. 

And I'm somehow OK with it, because not everyone can or will tip, and I suspect he's got no history of ever tipping a rideshare driver.

I drop them off and work another four hours, and speculate about long-term memories of this for the kid. 

Then I come home and write this, so I don't forget.

And kind of wish I could.