taken advantage of

like every city, there are bastards with cars that like to take advantage of poor innocent girls. but in new york city when you rely on cars to get you from point a to point b when you can't take public tranportation, you meet these bastards more often. today i met one.

my friend karina and i had decided to go to target early this morning to beat the usual rush. since she was with me and we agreed to share a car home, i bought a tv stand that came in a box that was way to heavy to carry all the 8 blocks or so back to my house. i've taken cars home from target before and it's only cost me $6 to do so.

when we walked out in the pouring rain, with huge heavy box on my head, a nice looking man offered to come take it off my hands and take us back home. he wasn't driving the usual black lincoln town car, but i just assumed he worked for some sort of service. we drove the 8 or so blocks and i got out my wallet.

"6 dollars, right?" i asked him.

"NO! it's $20." he demanded.

20 fucking dollars for a 3 minute drive? no way in hell.

i argued this with him.

with that, he locked the doors to the back seat that karina and i were sitting in.
scary! karina started to get serious with him and really huffy.

"how dare you lock the doors on us. we are NOT paying $20 for that ride. that is outrageous."

"it's $20 to pick up a box" he repeated over and over.
fucking asshole.

i said that he didn't tell us it was going to be that much when we got in the car and that it wasn't fair. but he wouldn't back down, telling us this was the "rule." his rule!

karina showed her true colors right then and there. she raised her voice, very seriously and demanded that he open the door and that she was calling the cops. for some reason that got to him and he opened the door for us. karina jumped out and went to the back to take down his license number, phone in hand. i was sort of in shock and was ready to hand him a $20 to get him off our backs. but she was determined to do what was right. he opened the trunk, got out my stuff and asked for the 20 again, all up in my face.

"sorry dude. i'll give you 10 and that's it. end of story."

all i had was a 20 and of course he said he didn't have change. he knew he was in the wrong but still wanted his damn money. i ran over to karina asking for $10. she yelled at him that she had the cops on the phone and he got in his car. we should have just let him go with nothing, teaching him a lesson, but for some stupid reason and went over to him and gave him the $10 she handed me. i think i was just scared and didn't want any trouble.

karina wasn't even really calling the cops. she was just using street smarts. we talked about it later and wondered what was in a human's make-up that would make one person give in to avoid trouble and one person to fight for what was right. what would you have done?

back to life, back to reality

sing it!
yep, got back to a chilly nyc after spending all day in a tshirt reading a book on the lawn in sunny cali. man was that nice. i really wasn't stoked to come back. i just wasn't ready to deal with real life. my vacaction was so lovely and who would want to go back to working and getting your shit together when you'd been lazing around being well-fed and better yet, well-loved? not me.

but nonetheless, my ticket told me i had to come home and deal. and the weekend proved to be good--starting the new year on the right foot anyway. on the plane ride home i took the liberty to write down all my 2006 goals and as soon as i got off that plane i started putting a few of those items into play. i spent the weekend getting my place back together, organizing, purging, cleaning, shopping. it felt good. spent the evenings with friends playing games, watching great movies, eating. back to normal.

today i'm back in my work space. i had high anxiety on my walk to work just fearing seeing the certain someone. and after all the stress over it, it was actually just fine. as fine as it could be. just kept busy, kept to myself. i did not engage, but was cordial. moving ON i say!

here's my list of 2006 goals (a tall order but why not go big as they say?):

for the MIND--
• start and stick with therapy
• read 1 book per month
• get serious about finances (stick to a budget, get quickbooks and actually do it!)
• take a self interest class (spanish and/or a design type of class)

for the BODY--
• stick to an exercize routine: african dance (once a week), yoga (once a week), gym (3 times a week)
• eat at home more (make soups!)
• drink 8 glasses of water a day

for the SOUL--
• travel adventures (visit at least 2 new countries this year)
• volunteer work (continue with ICO and check out NY cares--volunteer one to two times a month)
• work on communication skills (not avoiding confrontation, saying NO more often and not feeling guilty about it, work on self expression)
• keep a journal
• continue bringing people together with craft nights