Lesson learned: If you're going to drive 20 miles over the speed limit, which admittedly I frequently do, and if you are also going to get pulled over, try to ensure that the cop you get somehow thinks you are cute. He will not only just give you a warning (first time EVER I haven't gotten a ticket), he will tell you where the next two speed traps are and where the cheapest gas is between the PA Turnpike and Delaware.
I was digging him, too. Sorry I don't live in Pennsylvania, Officer Brian.

So here's some crazy shit from yesterday. I leave my house at 5am after the customary pre-travel all-nighter. Cab driver takes me to Baltimore (for a paltry $90...choke!) and we get talking. He is from Ghana. His father was the chief of his tribe. (Did you know that if you're a tribal chief in Ghana and you die, they must wait 3 months to bury you? Ewww.) He went to the city and did very well in the military, and ended up being a bodyguard for the former president of Ghana. When new president came in and party loyalties shifted, all security was dismissed (understandably). Not wanting to be "victimized" as he put it (harassed, threatened, etc, I would think), he came to the States until party loyalties shift again (also understandable). He travels a lot. He does want to go home and visit his family in Ghana. He wants me to go also. He offered to pay for the ticket.

I seriously considered it, right then and there. One of my multitude of career aspirations is to be a travel writer. I could go with this cab driver I knew for an hour to Africa... and write an article titled "I Do Stupid Shit So You Don't Have To". Having learned my lesson from the IndiStalker about giving out phone numbers, I just gave him my email instead.
He could have been lying about being a "big shot" in Ghana. I almost told him I was in grad studies, just for the hell of it. But then we had a discussion about honesty later, and how upset he was ths girl he was seeing lied to him about being a smoker. *shrug* We'll see. No email yet. No plans to fly to Africa. But it got me thinking, I need to do more crazy shit. I haven't travelled by myself anywhere since my trip to the UK. It needs to happen.

So then I get into the airport and they can't find my reservation. Half jokingly I ask if I got the date right. "Oh, that's it," says the agent. "You were supposed to fly yesterday."
*choke*
*imagining phone call to dad: "Hiiiiiii daddy. Hey thanks for the cash for my uber-expensive cab ride, and sorry to call before 6:30 am, but um, I missed my flight."


However, agent just smiled and typed some keys and handed me a boarding pass. I was wary. "Is there a fee or anything?"
"No," he says, "I just added you to today's flight. Gave you business class to Phoenix, too."
Still wary. Stand there for a minute just looking at him.
"Gate B28, to your right. Have a good flight," he says.
Note to self: Be more cute, more often. Or something.