Taxi!
Posted on May 15, 2005 4 Comments
Last night I headed into the city to attend a going away party for a fabulous friend (and a fellow Budgeting Babe!). Brian and I arrived at the bar early, planning not to stay long due to our limited budget, but three hours and five drinks later, we were pretty comfortable – turns out the prices were good and the martinis were excellent.
I’m not sure when the night took a turn for the worse, but at least I can look back on it this morning and laugh… and of course, write about it, because the simplest solution to our whole problem would have been to take a cab all the way home. But given our budget, we couldn’t spend an extra $40 on the cab ride out the Oak Park!
A brief summary of last night’s “adventures in transportation” follows. Keep in mind that if we had left the bar at 11:00, as planned, our trip home would have cost $1.75 each:
Midnight-ish: We leave Waterhouse (the location of the party) to meet up with Brian’s friend at a bar called Sedgwick’s, which is in the same neighborhood. His friend’s wife is driving home and we’ll have a free ride to Oak Park. Yahoo!
12:20 a.m.: Still in the cab, stuck in midnight traffic. Brian’s friend calls to say he’s leaving. He instructs us to come to the bar and hop on the trolley. (He’s out for a bachelor party and they’ve rented the trolley for the night.) Wait, wait… the trolley is leaving. Can we meet him at the next bar?
We decide to find the nearest el stop and take public transportation home.
Total cab fare: $11
12:35 a.m.: We arrive at the nearest Brown Line stop, purchase our tickets and run up to the trains, only to find we’ve missed the last train by five minutes. The ticket agent laughs at us.
Total CTA fare: $3.50
12:40 a.m.: While leaving the station, I open the door and feel my legs swept from under me. I realize I’m falling, head first, onto the pavement, arms flailing, like some sort of crazy chicken. I immediately begin laughing hystarically, very confused, and wonder why I am on the ground.
I see the culprit behind me – a small, practically invisible step (I am sure was not there when I entered). I realize now that I’m in pain…and my knee is bleeding. I begin to sob, uncontrollably, while laughing at the same time.
Brian scrapes me off the ground.
I try to stiffle my laughter and the sobs, and the image of what I must have looked like flying through the air. We grab another cab to the downtown suburban train station.
1:00 a.m.: We arrive at the train station to find all the doors locked. We realize we’ve missed the last train by 40 minutes.
Total cab fare to the closed train station: $10
1:15 a.m.: After walking 15 minutes through a chilly and dark downtown Chicago wearing summer clothing, we arrive at the Blue Line stop and finally jump on a train. My lips are probably blue.
Total fare: none, we bought the tickets at the Brown Line stop earlier
1:45 a.m.: We come to our stop. I am tired, cranky, my knee hurts, my make-up is smeared from crying and I’m still a mile away from home. I begin walking very fast and notice Brian is walking very slow. He never speeds up to walk with me.
The entire way home, in the cold, Brian walks across the street, behind me. I grow angrier every minute imagining a hand reaching out from behind shrubbery to grab me. Brian wouldn’t have a clue; he’s too busy being cool and walking far away from me. Jerk.
2:00 a.m.: Twenty-three dollars and two hours later, we finally arrive home. Finally! I collapse from exhaustion immediately.
Total cost of the night ended up somewhere around $75 for two of us, including drinks and transportation. If we weren’t such cheap bastards, we would have saved ourselves a whole lot of trouble. But every now and then I suppose we need those really terrible nights spent roaming around the city at one a.m. with a sore knee to keep us humble.
At least when we’re rich and have limo drivers to take us everywhere, we’ll have something to laugh about.
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4 Responses to “Taxi!”
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May 16th, 2005 @ 2:25 pm
What a hoot! Sometimes life is like that — that’s why you need a bit of “wiggle room” in your budget.
May 16th, 2005 @ 4:29 pm
Dear Cousin….Sedgwick’s is right up the street from my apartment, which is ON SEDGEWICK. Do you need me to give you my number again?
Love Cosin Joe.
May 16th, 2005 @ 4:30 pm
ps — you guys could’ve just crashed at my place & gotten a free ride home in the morning.
May 16th, 2005 @ 7:41 pm
Def call me Friday….I have no plans and will be in town.