What do you say to the crazy taxi driver?
Had a strange experience last night. My group had it's holiday party downtown at Benaroya Hall. Food, drinks, music, seeing nerdy folks all suit-ed up - what could be better? :) . A couple friends were having their group's holiday party a few blocks away, so after hanging out at our party for a while, we made our way to their party. Unfortunately about twenty minutes after getting there, I had an absolutely pounding headache and decided I was going to head home, take a painkiller, and go to bed.
Here's where it gets strange. Eventually I caught a taxi and was on my way. The guy driving was from Southeast Asia (I think Cambodia because he kept talking about the Cambodian women). The picture on the placard in the taxi was a Indian man with a beard and a turban. In no way was it a picture of my driver. A little unexpected, but no big deal. And then, somehow, the conversation turns to older men marrying younger women. WAY younger. He starts talking about these seventy-year old men marrying girls. Seventeen was the OLD side of what he was talking about. And it was in a way like "aren't these girls clever - these old guys are going to die soon and the girl will get all of his money."
At that point what do you say? It's a cold night out. I'm far enough away from home that I don't really feel inclined to walk the rest of the way. And I've had a few drinks at the party (hence the cab) so I'm even less inclined to walk home, and doubtful that I should really engage in a thoughtful debate on why I don't believe that teenage girls and septuagenarian men should be engaging in marriage.
Then again, this taxi driver had nothing on the self-styled "Vanilla Gorilla" from last year's holiday party.