after a very nice flight on jetblue.

to save some money we routed our flight through long beach instead of LAX.

i think the difference in price was $80 from chicago to the lbc instead of through LAX, but then we realized we had no ride from the airport.

we were thinking about a super shuttle type van but we were so tired. the difference in price was $60 for a shuttle or $75 for a cab so we took the cab. turned out the meter was almost exactly exact from the airport to the truest’s house.

near her crib we decided that i wanted to crash at my house and she wanted to soak in her tub at her place. so i told the dude to keep the meter running as she climbed the stairs of her bachelorette pad.

but my cabbie didnt seem to know what i was talking about and turned off the meter.

he said he couldnt pick up any fares in LA so he didnt mind driving me to my place on the other side of hollywood (a $25 cab ride, typically) and he said he’d do it for free.

without her in the car i started talking to him. turned out he was from Cambodia and moved here 30 years ago after his family was slaughtered after it was discovered that his father was in the army. because he was a teen at the time he was in the jungle working so as they killed his mom and brothers and sisters he was saved.

he now drives a cab seven days a week in long beach supporting his family of five. he has four children, two are in the us army, the other two are in college.

his oldest has served two tours of iraq with the marines and soon may be deployed to iraq. he has your fathers warrior spirit i said. he shrugged.

we talked a little about religion. he said that cambodia and thailand share a border and many types of food and buddhism. he said he doesnt have much time to go to the temple to pray.

i gave him the extra $25 when we got to my place. why not.