A Little Syrup

I didn't work last night, which was nice... just a wonderful and very rewarding day off, a lot of great things happened in real life.

Which reminds me that it's important to note that this job is not all bad, and the experiences aren't always depressing, or involve confrontations with the colder truths of human existence. There are moments where it's Sunday morning, and I'm driving across the Broadway Bridge with the sun rising behind me and almost $500 cash in my pocket, and the good reggae DJ on KBOO puts on "Fisherman" by the Congos, the bassline drops, the man starts singing, and I'll be pulling up to the pumps soon...

And those are the times where I absolutely love my job. Seeing the rising sun strike St. Helens as I'm taking someone to the airport early in the morning. The Sunday night hip-hop DJ suddenly kicking out "The Symphony, Part 1" just as I hit every light green on MLK at 2 in the morning. A full moon hanging over Portland as I drive westbound on the Fremont bridge, the whole west side and hills glittering in front of me as my fare tells funny jokes. Shooting the shit with M. in the Fred Meyer parking lot at 82nd and Foster as the sun sets over the west hills, trading stories about our best trips ever.

They're small moments, but there are enough of them. They don't make for great stories, but they're part of why I enjoy my job, and I gauge my descent into bitter misanthropy by my ability to appreciate them. So far, I'm doing okay.

I'll try to make this the last time I slip into Walter-Cronkite-at-the-end-of-his-career mode, but I thought it would be good to let people who live in other parts of the country, or haven't seen me for whatever reason, know that I haven't become some nocturnal troll.

And yes, I badly need a camera that isn't in my cell-phone, so that I can take pictures of the cool stuff I see.