Shadow's Taxicab Reports: The metaphysics of the party vibe

shadowknows69

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Tue Jun-12-07 07:42 AM
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Shadow's Taxicab Reports: The metaphysics of the party vibe

Edited on Tue Jun-12-07 07:43 AM by shadowknows69

Not specifically soldier related

Anyone that knows me well and a few that I wish didn't know a couple things about me.

A) I have a pretty rich history of "substance exploration", better, or at least more interesting living through chemicals and a general tendency to celebrate in extremes and...

B) I ascribe an almost spiritual and otherworldly significance to the various ways people seek to alter their consciousness or even how they socialize in a celebratory manor in general. Hey, I do count Dionysus among my favorite Gods.

Obviously I get to see a microcosm of this phenomenon every time I chauffeur the revelers around on a Friday night and there is a barely quantifiable but very observable pattern to it all. Like the phases of the moon and how her pull affects the tides and indeed the very water in our veins the "party vibe" has an eerie consistency to it.

It's always seems like everyone I pick up, a few of our regular "from and to work" regulars excepted, is on the same page emotionally in some strange way.

It's either a fuck or fight night. Couples are either splitting, or cheating or hooking up for the first time. Sometimes it's obviously "Men's" or "Ladies" night out and they travel in non-sexually integrated packs of half a dozen or so. At least until closing time. Other times it's an all couples night. This also adds to and stays consistent with the "fuck or fight", "Love or loathing" theory. The couples that go out are either all fighting or lovey dovey when I get them later.

Some slow nights I dread worse than the rocking weekend. The drunks seem more hostile or more depressed or just flat out bat shit crazy. Sundays through Tuesdays are depression nights. People drink alone. People get more wasted. Some people are more dangerous. Some women are friendlier.

In relation to the troops it is much the same. Some whole squads go out together looking to score the local lady's company. They almost inevitably all succeed or fail together as well for some reason. Some squads are on search and destroy missions. Plotting the whole time in my cab where the other squad of fellow troops is hanging out tonight that they plan on having a small but violent riot with later.

Some nights it's nothing but the twilight zone. My first customer at 5PM will be some guy drunk already upset about his girlfriend he caught fucking the family goat. He's trying to get her to come back to him though. The I'll get the guy who wants me to find someone to spank him or the hooker who wants to trade up for a ride. "Thanks but no honey, the 5 bucks and my marriage are worth more." Usually don't get paid anyway because they know it's more of a pain in the ass to call the cops on them.

The potential serial killers are fun too. The ones that actually ask you what you'd do if they tried to rob me. I don't pack heat but sometimes I lie and say I do. Sometimes I'll get real creepy and show them my knife and explain that I'll spill their life on my dashboard without a second thought. It cleans up. Usually ends the conversation. Until I pick up Ed Gein someday of course, then I'm fucking done.

Some nights all the women are weeping and you want to but don't dare ask what's wrong and offer a shoulder. Sometimes the men are weeping too. Usually the same ones.

Some nights you get the really special ones like "Marty" who deserves his own column someday but long story short this guy wanted me to drive him up in the adirondacks so he could jump in a river somewhere and kill himself so no one would find out. Almost took the 1000 he offered me but decided that being the last person to see a missing man alive probably would insure me a spot as prime murder suspect when they finally found his carcass so I declined.

You have to do a full 12 hour shift to really see the pattern but it's there. Mystical, mysterious and unprovable but The Shadow knows it's true. Tip your cabbie.
Shadow out.