In about 18 hours, I will be boarding a plane bound for Puerto Vallarta for a much needed 2 week vacation. 14 days of reading on the beach, drinking Coronas and Pacificos, eating some fabulous meals... This will be my 8th year in a row down there and yet it never gets old. As the winter cold sets in and the corporate ratrace continues, I always wonder if I should just be selling t-shirts on the beach or open a bar or something down in PV.

I'll be posting some pics upon my return. Unless I decide to take a job selling t-shirts...

Taxi drivers have made news for both their good and evil deeds. Time to add another story to the good column.

After a late night out, I left my wallet in a taxi Friday night. Well technically, Satuday morning since it was about 4:15 am bu the time the night ended. Anyway, while I realized it about 2 minutes after the cab dropped me off at my apartment, I had no idea what the number of the cab or the cab company was! There are thousands of cabs and dozens of cab companies in Chicago, and it could have been in any one!

Saturday morning, I began to plot the list of chores required to cancel and replace the items in my wallet. Since I knew I had business cards in my wallet I called my work voice mail to see if any messages had been left regarding my wallet. No luck. I headed down to see if by chance it had been dropped off with the doorman. No luck there, either. So I walked to the closest BankOne to cancel my ATM card and to beg for a withdrawal without any ID since I had a total of $6. On the way home from the bank, I again called my answering machine at home and again tried my work voicemail. ONE NEW MESSAGE! Could this be it? Who else would call me at work, on a Saturday? I bet I don't get a voicemail a month at work, and those are ususally my mom calling to remind me about it being somebody's birthday.

So I listen to the message. It's the cab driver and he found my wallet. He leaves his phone number and repeats it. I can't understand either time! His accent is so heavy, I cannot decipher what he's saying. So I listen and listen 20 or 30 times. I think I have it and call the number. No luck. I keep trying to decipher the number and calling what I think I hear. Still no luck. I finally decide on making a chart of all possible combinations of what I think I may have heard. Finally, the sixth number I try is the right one! The driver has my wallet and can drop it off in 15 minutes. So in the end I got my wallet back. Everything in tact. So thank you Jacob Said, who drives Checker Cab #1486.