A Delightful Cabbie

As I mentioned in my birthday list, I enjoy reading Jon Acuff's blog. His post on Wednesday titled "Choose to be Delightful" made me recognize that only the day before, I had witnessed someone who was choosing to do just that.

On Tuesday morning I found myself in the back seat of a cab stuck in nightmarish Chicago traffic, knowing we were going to be late to our meeting. This is not a position I often find myself in as my usual 31-mile commute is rarely slowed by other traffic unless I happen to find myself behind a snowplow or a tractor on its way to deposit corn at the elevator.

I hate city driving, I get sick in any kind of stop & go traffic, and I hate cabs in general. What would make this day any different?

The difference was a man who took his job seriously, but didn't take himself seriously, who wanted to get us there on time but wanted us to have a good time.  Our cab driver did his best to give us a smooth ride on the way to our meeting and when we neared our destination, I asked if I could use a credit card and he said he didn't have any slips with him and didn't want us to be any later than we already were, but if we called him to take us back to the airport at night, we could pay him then. Wow, wasn't expecting that.

So, at 4:10pm, he was waiting outside our building and we gratefully jumped in the van for our ride to O'Hare. On the way to the airport in less-demanding driving, he let his true colors shine. He asked us about our training (Boraphyll to borrow a Billy Madison phrase), he asked us about our families, our jobs, our commute, how often we get to Chicago. Things that could be considered fishing for a tip or for future fares. But, then we really started to have fun. He told us he'd give us the ride for free if we could guess his age and we said we'd give him a big(ger) tip if he could guess mine.  He guessed "24 or younger" and I turn 29 on Friday, so that gave him some bonus points already. Unfortunately, we didn't get a free ride because we guessed 38 and he was actually 45.  Then he had us guess what country he was born in. His name was Mohamed so that narrowed it down to about 47 countries.  After about 8 guesses, we were stumped (it was Morocco). Then, he had a math problem for us:

You have a $100 gift card to a pet store. Dogs cost $15, cats cost $1 and fish cost $0.25. You have to buy 100 animals and at least one of each animal. How many of each animal do you buy to spend exactly $100?

He told us he once challenged a guy on his way to California with this question and he came back a week later and wanted to know the answer because he couldn't figure it out. We worked on the problem in the airport and when I figured it out the next morning, we texted it to our new friend.

Friend. In a 75 minute ride and another 30 minute trip, he developed such a rapport with my co-worker and I that we stored his number to use anytime we come back to Chicago. We got his address so we could send him a box of candy. I've probably told 5 people what a great cab driver we had. I even forgot to be carsick on the way to the airport. I thoroughly enjoyed my ride because Mohamed chose to be delightful.

He even talked to us about how he makes it a point to talk to people and have fun with them because it helps them forget about whatever boring meeting or plane ride they are coming from or going to and makes the ride go so much faster. He likes driving in the suburbs and doing airport pickups because he feels like a caged bird in the city and likes to have longer to talk to people. He likes his job, he likes people, and instead of grinding out fares day after day, he chooses to make someones day a little more enjoyable.

So thanks, Mohamed for being a delightful cab driver!