I have been thinking for some time to write a post on how no one smiles in Washington. In my office building when I run into other people on the floor or in the elevator, I'll smile if I catch their eye. Why? Because I'm from Texas and that's what we do. It's nice. It makes your day just a little bit better. Instead of a smile back, I get a straight face or sometime a look that almost says "what is your problem?" My problem is that I don't like being miserable and a friendly smile always brightens the day.
Anyway, that's not what this post is about. Because just when I'm feeling slightly jaded, something happens.
For anyone out in DC this evening, you know that it got cold and very wet. At about 10:30, I found myself in Chinatown about to walk home in the rain. I did it because I didn't think it'd be so bad. After all, I'd just walked from the White House to Chinatown and didn't get very wet. And it's really not a bad walk home.
After a block I could feel my pants getting very wet and my legs getting cold, the top of my hair getting soaked (it wasn't raining hard enough to completely soak my hair, which was good), and the droplets streaming dwon my face. So I decided to do something I rarely do.
I took a cab.
Except...all the cabs that were leaving Chinatown and heading my direction all had people in them. I'm not too far from home now, maybe eight to ten blocks, but a cab would still be nice. And what do you know? One pulled over and asked where I was going. There was a young couple in the backseat, maybe my age, and we chatted for a little about how the cold weather came from nowhere. I don't even know where they were going or how far out of the way I was, but it was nice of them to pull over. I would have gotten an empty cab eventually, because I think one even pulled up behind them, but it was nice to have my faith restored.
And the $6.50 wasn't bad. I thought it'd be double that, but now that I know...I might be more inclined to stay out later in Chinatown and cab it back.
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