drinking on the eve of finals week and my new rule about paying taxicab drivers

or how i wish i could write a much better title to this long overdue blog entry so that people can stop hounding me for not updating and maintaining my blog


a few classmates and i were crazy for deciding to go to sara’s for a few rounds of beer monday night. at this point in the semester, with classes ending and the finals looming in the horizon, anyone in his right mind would be burying the midnight oil and burning his head in books. that's supposed to be the other way around, isn’t it? must still be tispy.

anyway, we were crazy. i was crazier. i only had a couple of hundreds, which i was trying save for as long as i can because my savings from my last job is going bye-bye fast. i figured we were going to katipunan where there’s enough atms, so kung mapasabak, at least i can suck my savings dry and still make it home. wala nang classes, so i can play hermit and study for the finals. i can always bum a few five- and ten-peso coins from the coin bottle we have at home if the need arises.

but sara’s it was. with beer only 20-plus bucks, i figured i can still have dinner, but after a few calculations, i decided to spend the little money i have on beer instead, despite an empty stomach. a couple of hours and three bottles later, we all decided to call it a night. i guess we weren’t that crazy yet to actually drown the night away in alcohol with less calories.

i was left with exactly a hundred bucks. hailed a cab, and knew that the ride home will cost no more than 65 bucks. even if i’m cash-strapped, i always follow two general rules in paying my cabbie.

one, the very first empty cab that answers my call without the driver asking me where i'm going before unlocking the doors gets a fat tip.

two, if the driver drives safely and follows the rules of the road, he also gets a fat tip.

otherwise, i will pay the exact fare.

but the ride home made me add a new rule: if the driver is as thin as reed and coughs and wheezes like crazy, he gets a fat tip.

i just felt so sorry for the dude. you don’t have to be a doctor to know he’s sick, and that he should be resting. at home. with his family. he shouldn’t be driving late at night trying to earn a buck, but he had to.

the cab stopped in front of our house, and i handed him my last hundred and told him to keep the change. he needed it more than i did at that point. i can earn it back some other time.