Car Pool Log: 2006 08-09

Dark green Lexus sedan, tan leather interiors. Driver said hello to me through the sunroof of his car as I was stepping into the back. A suit and a tie hanging on a clip in the back, a blue folder with papers on the seat, a newspaper on the floor underneath the Driver’s seat with a water stain. Also; two 1 liter bottles of water and an aluminum can without a label also underneath the seat. There was the faintest smell, sweet and burnt, of marijuana, as if it had been long saturated in the folds of leather and weave of the upholstery.

Driver was using a hands-free headset for his cellphone. The radio was tuned to KQED but the volume turned all the way down. From the moment I got into his vehicle until just before we got off the bridge, he was on the phone.

“Yeah, I’m at casual car pool, I’m waiting for another person I just picked somebody up… yeah, there’s a long line behind me… it works out for everyone, I get to use the car pool lane and it saves me money. These guys also get a free ride.”

I had originally assumed he was on the phone with a colleague but later realized he was talking to a sibling.

“So, you don’t want to use the Italian restaurant in Palm Beach?...”

“Anytime there’s balloons and cakes and candles involved…”

“We’re flying into Ft. Lauderdale… it was cheaper that way… we’re renting a car…”

“I’m getting the impression that mom wants to stay home…”

“I bet he has everything planned out on a spreadsheet!...”

“I remind him everytime he’s had me drive from Sacramento to pick him up at the airport in San Francisco because it was more inexpensive for him that way…”

“So you were in New Jersey last week… saw Bon Jovi!... I saw him on the Good Morning show and he seems like a regular guy… Either that or a restraining order!... Yeah, you taped it?... He must have been excited by all those teenaged girls... So, who do you know in Napa?... That’s dedication… Stalker…”