That was a little disturbing

Oft of an evening, by the time I get myself to Brookline Village, I decide I'm too tired to walk or bus the rest of the way home, and I catch a cab.

Usually, everything's fine, but last time...

I headed over to the cab stand and got in the first cab I saw*, told the driver where I was headed and then noticed that there had been a cab in front of the one I entered, but all its lights were off, so I didn't see it. I am aware of cab etiquette as far as choosing the frontmost cab at a cab stand, but that cab was mostly invisible at the time.

So "my" cabbie started driving, and suddenly the frontmost cab started honking and swerved in front of him cutting him off. That cabbie was yelling in a language I don't understand, but my cabbie did. My cabbie first told me to go to the other cab, but as I was reaching for the door handle, the other cabbie kept yelling louder and bringing his cab closer, and then my cabbie told me to stay in the cab and he'd take me anyway.

I'm glad he did; even if I had gotten out of the cab, I wasn't about to get in the other one, with that driver so angry. I made an honest mistake, and my cabbie did tell me to get into his cab, and I was afraid of the other driver. What I found most interesting is that both cabs were from Town Taxi. (Ah, a quick search of The Google, blessed be it, shows that Town Taxi is an independent dispatcher.)

Lately, I only like getting cabs from Veteran's Taxi in Newton; with one exception of a cabbie listening to conservative talk radio in which Jay Severin claimed that nobody's ever died from not having health insurance (no really, WHAT?), I've never felt uncomfortable in a Veteran's cab; they're clean, and their credit card machines always work. This doesn't help me get home at night, however.

Now that the weather's improving, I'm more fine with walking through Mission Hill than getting a Brookline cab. Although, I am quite fond of the Scion xB Hello Taxis, although I've never taken one. They're just so cute.

*Incidentally, I'm not originally from a Major City, and I still don't understand if a cab's light on the roof being on means it's available or not. Anyone?

Oh, happy day

One major benefit of teaching young'uns is that some of them are Girl Scouts, so I can get my Thin Mint fix without having to check all the train stations and grocery stores in the Greater Boston Metro Area.

I mean, sure, there's a web site for booth locations, but I have to remember to 1) look, 2) go there and 3) have money with me. One of my students yesterday just happened to have boxes on hand at her house, so even though SOME members of this household don't understand why one might need emergency backup Thin Mints, I have two boxes in the freezer.

It's a long time from one Girl Scout Cookie time to the next, and if I'm careful, I can hoard oh, eleven or sixty-eight boxes in the freezer without being detected.

Except that said household member reads this. Hm.

Wait, what?

Me: So it seems like you're counting to five fine, but try to get to eight.
4-year-old student: I'll count to five your HEAD.
Me: That...didn't even make sense.
Student: Oh.

Lack of safety in numbers...

...for me, anyway.

I had my younger violin group the other day, who are all in the seven-ish age range. One of their favorite activities at the moment is to play pieces while lying down. Last group, the conversation went something like this (and it doesn't really matter who's speaking, just picture a swarm of four seven-year-olds. Oh my, can they swarm):

"Next time, can we play standing on our heads?"
Me: That doesn't sound particularly safe...
"Someone could do that though if they were a really good acrobat."
"A really good acrobat could play violin on a tightrope!"
"On a bicycle on a tightrope!"
"There could be a horse under the tightrope and they could jump off the bicycle and land on the horse and keep playing the violin!"


I hereby disavow any and all responsibility for any violin-tightrope-bicycle-horse-related incidents. Ever.