PediCab terror

Was running late (of course) to meet 2 and and our third - she's the ultimate kvetchette but like Scarlet Johansson is too cool for school and won't blog with us. We were meeting for our monthly dinner to bitch about our lives, discuss husbands / ex-possibly repeat boyfriends, home ownership, jobs and the lack or potential thereof, and of course vjs, as per our usual. The sleet and rain storm that began instantaneously as I stepped out onto the street prevented me from finding a proper cab in the afternoon rush, and I was forced to consider alternative transport options. Subway was no good: 1, because it's for the chickens, and 2, because I was only going about 15 blocks, hardly made the walk to the station in the rain worth it. Buses weren't a great option because midtown traffic at 7p.m. is like how long it takes to get through a New Yorker article - way too long, boring and uses lots of words I don't understand. (Well the traffic doesn't use words I don't understand but there is a lot of honking so it huts my head none-the-less.) So as I stand on the street sans umbrella, getting poked by other peoples inappropriately giant umbrellas, I had a decision to make: Hoof it all the way there or risk my life in a PediCab! I choose pedicab. So the guy unzips the sad little layer of plastic that protects the seat to let me in while he's suffering outside in the cold and wind and rain. I plop down and pray. He zooms forward with a lurch and a bump and we are wedged perilously close between a mammoth MTA bus and a cab that looks none to happy to share the road with us. We make sad progress as people on the street pass us by, rain leaking in from the top of this thing and wind blowing in from below. The worst part is I can tell this guy is struggling hard to get my fat ass up the hill. I sit and try to hold my breath as to make myself weigh even less, but it doesn't seem like it's working, I feel like the fattest cow on earth as he's lumbering up the street and jerking side to side with each painful peddle stride. We finally get to the destination, 25 minutes and 25 bucks later and he unzips and let's me out. I step promptly into a puddle and then slosh on to meet the girls, a little dizzy and little chilly but glad to be alive. I think that will be the last PediCab ride I'll take for a while.