Trapped in a car with a clueless driver Topaz: I was at a rehearsal the other night and I was getting ready to leave. The subway was right around the corner, a straight shot back into my little corner of the hood.
"Oh, we can drop you off," said the choreographer, who was clearing away the props and other rehearsal related stuff from the studio. Her fiance was there helping her.
And I thought, cool, it's late, and it's getting cold, and I hardly ever get to go anywhere in a car, but I don't know these people all that well, and the train might get me home just as fast...so I said, nah, don't worry about it. The choreographer and her fiance seem really nice, but I was just as psyched to sit on the A train, veg out, and read my magazine.
No, no, Topaz, we'll give you a ride! It's late! It's safer.
So here I am, getting into their car, nice car...and here we go around Grand Army Plaza, and I'm thinking, where ARE you going, man? I should have just spoken up then and there, but the guy's a native New Yorker and has already stated, quite confidently at that, that he knows EXACTLY where I live, and he's got a little bit of that New York, macho, don't mess with me attitude, so I really don't want to critique his sense of direction.
So I said, wow, I've never gone to my neighborhood this way before.
"Don't worry, Topaz, I grew up around here."
And now we're heading further and further away from my neighborhood at 1 am and we're going deeper into EAST NEW YORK, which is a freaking BAD neighborhood, and this guy is still acting like he knows where he's going!!
So I spoke up: "I have no idea where you're going, but we are far from where I live. Are you sure you know how to get there?"
And now the choreographer is getting all concerned, "honey, do you know where you're going? Are you lost? Poor Topaz must think you don't know how to drive" And I'm cringing, because I would hate to say that to my boyfriend, fiance, husband, whatever, and the guy is still insisting:
"I KNOW WHERE I'm GOING."
Ack! We're heading towards JFK airport, and the choreographer keeps asking her fiance if he knows where he's going, and apologizing to me, and he keeps on driving cluelessly.
Finally I said, "take a left up here, and get onto Atlantic, and turn right on Bedford". To his credit, the guy did what I said, but I felt horrible. I was almost tempted to run out of the car, but it was 1am and we're still in the worst part of Brooklyn.
And the choreographer, who is a total sweetheart, said (and I could have died of embarassment for her boyfriend, as well as general anxiety from being stuck in the car, witnessing this painful exchange): "Wow, Topaz, you really know New York, even though you're not from here."
I thanked them when they dropped me off and I said that I enjoyed cruising around, since I'm from the country, but man! Sometimes you have to watch what goes on between couples and it makes you want to cringe.
