My Last Night as a Lyft Driver

Hey! I got a new job! I'm going to be doing web development and graphic design for a law firm in Sacramento!
To make ends meet, I've been driving for Lyft. Five or six days a week, I've been firing up the Lyft driver app, checking my stats and switching into Driver mode. It's an adventure. The money isn't great, but the job is dead easy and pretty fun.

But, I wouldn't want to do it forever. The money is pretty thin, it can be hard on your body and there isn't any chance for career advancement. 

In three months I've provided 1,275 rides to 1,268 different people, almost all of them in Sacramento. Every day driving was a mix of people going to work, leaving school, seeing the doctor and getting home from the bar. 

February 4th! Saturday night.
I started the night standing in my kitchen, ready to start driving. When you hit "Go Online", you should be ready to drive to pick up your passenger, and I was. 
My first ride was a young woman, possibly 21, going to Luna's to see her friend sing. It was her first Lyft ride! We talked about Uber and Lyft in the car until we picked up her friend in River Park. They they talked about friends and clothes, and I mostly stayed out of the conversation. The second woman described her new dress, but was concerned about a slit that "goes all the way up to my vagina". We drove downtown and they picked up a third friend on the way to the cafe. Third friend didn't want to go out, but was coaxed out by the first two.  
Downtown Sacramento was teeming with people and cars. I dropped them off.
Early in the evening (7pm) is when people want to get into the downtown nightlife, so I will usually head out into the surrounding communities to get closer to them. I headed south. 
My next passengers were south of the zoo in the Land Park area. Two guys headed to the Kings Warriors basketball game. They were a little late, and I told them we would be about four minutes late to the start of the game. Ryan turned with a comically mad face, "You better drive fast!". 
Ryan asked if I had any gum, but when I directed him to the glove compartment, there was a single stick remaining. he wouldn't take it.
"I had better leave this last piece for you, in case you give a ride to a hot girl". 
Dropping passengers off at the new Golden One center is a little tough. The official places to drop passengers off are 2 blocks away. I'd love to know the logic behind this. 
Next I headed north into Natomas. There were always people here who wanted to get downtown. A guy named Jonathan called my car and directed me to a girls house, Brittany. It was Brittany and Jonathan's first date! Brit was nervous, she was recently single after being in a relationship for four years. She looked great and guess what? She asked for a piece of gum! Ryan's hot girl prediction came true! 
I was impressed with Johnathan's move, to send a Lyft car to her house to pick up his date. They were going see the movie Rings. Normally I'd say this was a terrible choice for a first date, but they knew each other from high school, so it wasn't really a "get to know you" kind of date.
In Natomas, after I dropped them off, I got a call for another ride a few minutes later. Unfortunately I was stuck in a right-turn only lane headed over the Truxel overpass, so I couldn't turn around immediately. The guy cancelled the ride as soon as he saw me headed in the wrong direction.
My next customer was Carlos. He was headed to the Kings game, an hour late for tip-off. He had acquired last-minute tickets to the game, and had to corral four women on a wine-tasting trip in Napa to get to the game.
Next I picked up a couple downtown, they were headed to Art Street, a temporary multi-artist collaborative project which had filled an abandoned factory building with work from 34 local artists. The project officially closed its doors at 9pm, but they had special invites to an after-hours event. I told them Colleen had a display there, but didn't let on that I had already visited that day with my kids.
After I dropped them off at Art Street, I headed south. The night was still young, so I figured I'd head away from downtown to find the travellers.
I made it to Florin Road without a passenger. I parked in the Walmart lot, 

Some of my favorite Lyft journeys

One day I drove two logistics managers. One was a manager for Vampire Penguin frozen treats. He was trying to make sure that their unique product could be quality controlled and available to stores opening in Tracy, Oakland and Livermore, as well as the Philipines. The other logistics manager was a translator for the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea. He said it was a hard job, and it was tough not knowing if his friends would get back from their missions alive. The stress was very bad, so he quit, and jumped at the chance for a green card to the US. He was going to a Saturday night house party in Sacramento, calling his family in Kenya on Whatsapp to troubleshoot the arrangements for his grandmother's funeral. But the important Whatsapp call was getting cut off by inconsequential telephone calls coming in from the host in Sacramento, asking if he could pick up olives for the houseparty, or crushed ice, or matches.