#THATRIDESHARINGLIFE

Wow, this was an interesting week for Ridesharing. Where do I even begin? Oh I know, how about the guy who spit on me because he was just so drunk he couldn't input the correct address for where he wanted to go to in the app?

This was Saturday night. I picked this guy and his friend up from a night club. As soon as they got in the car, I started their ride and confirmed their address. The guy who booked the ride said yes that's it and I went along my merry way. Before I can even get out of the parking lot, the guy's friend asked me to confirm the address again, I did and all of a sudden the address wasn't correct. I asked the gentlemen to update the address in the app. The guy who booked the ride started yelling the address at me and I told him all he needed to do was update the address in the app. Next thing you know the guy gets belligerent.

"I told you where I needed to go. You all already charged me $10 you better take me where I need to go." When I began to respond he continued, "no it seems like you don't F&$%ing care. Take me where I need to go now". My car stopped before I could even register the thought. I asked the gentleman to get out of my car. There was no way I was going to have someone disrespect me at that level in my own car. Please!

All of a sudden I became a B%$#, a Slut, a mother lover, etc. It took three times for me to say get out of my car before the gentleman actually opened the door and got out of my car still screaming expletives. Before he closed the door behind him he spit at me twice. The first time landed in my hair and on the back of my neck, the second, landed on the back of my seat and all over my door.

Now if you've been following Phorbe for sometime now, you'll know that this isn't the first time I've been spit on. So I handled it with class. I drove away from the guy and once I found a safe place to pull over, I reported him. I was given a $150 cleaning fee to clean up his mess and his behavior is being further investigated with the ride share company.

Sunday night, I was driving in WeHo with three passengers in my car on their way to a night club to celebrate PRIDE. I was in the left turning lane completely stopped waiting for the light when the police car ahead of me accelerated backwards at full speed into the front of my car. My passengers were amazed at how cool I was handling the situation as we all had to give our accounts of what happened on video for two separate reports: an accident report and another report that was going to go on the at fault officer's record. Little did they know, I've had practice over the last year. I took photos of the damage, got a video of the damage, answered all the questions I needed to ask and we were on our merry way.

Monday, I ended up back in Hollywood. I pulled over to take a break for lunch at a Subway before going to upload my blog post for the day. After eating lunch, I hopped in my car, put the key in the ignition, turned it and nothing happened. I tried again. The battery came on, so the air conditioning kicked in while the radio blarred, but the engine--nothing. I checked my dashboard and realized there was an indicator light on. A car with a lock over it. For those of you who don't know what that is, that is the light for the anti theft system. This is a built in system that keeps the car engine from turning on whenever a foreign key is inserted into the ignition. Apparently, my car had decided that it didn't want to accept my key anymore and so obviously, my key was fake and I was trying to steal my car.

I sat in my car dumbfounded. I was about 50 miles from home. Although I could take a rideshare home, I didn't want to have to tow my car all the way back to Orange County. But towing it in Hollywood would mean I would have to come all the way back up to Hollywood to pick it up. Fortunately, the care I use for ridesharing is a rental. So I wouldn't have to pay for any towing or service to fix the key issue. But it would still be inconvenient.

I tried the key ten more times. No matter how I inserted it, jiggled it, stepped on the break while turning it, the engine wouldn't come on. I took a break and called my grandma. 20 minutes later, I hung up with her and tried again. As the panick started to kick in, I turned the car off and prayed to God.

I told God how I was confused. What was going on this week? First a crazy rider, than another accident, and now this? I told him I wasn't going to accept this. The devil was coming for me hard and I was not having it. I prayed for God to help me push the Devil back and out of my business because I didn't have time for this mess. But as I got deeper and deeper into my prayer, I started realizing that I have been going down the wrong path in the last month.

There are some things in my life that I have been neglecting, I had fell off the wagon in other parts of my life and I realized that maybe all of this was a wake up call. When I quit my job back in April I had a plan. In many ways I've followed that plan and in many other ways I have not. It's time to put the entire plan into action.

So, I prayed to God for forgiveness. I asked him to help guide me back on track and I asked him for mercy in my current situation. After my prayer, I meditated for a couple of minutes and then tried my key again. It didn't work. All of a sudden a thought popped into my head, what if I called a tow truck to see if they can fix the lock and key problem. I called my rental insurance company and they said they can only have a tow truck tow the vehicle.

Again, a thought popped into my head. Why not try a DIY remedy and youtube ways to fix this problem. Ladies, gentlemen, and those of you who go by they, them, their, and/or X pronouns, in five minutes I found my answer. Put the key in the ignition and turn the car on for 10 minutes. Then turn the car off for 10 seconds. Do this three times and you can reprogram your key for your car. #FoFree

30 minutes and 30 seconds later I was back on the road again.

Tuesday, I got stuck at the top of Mullholland drive during the fire. Of course I didn't know there was a fire at the time. I just knew the cops were blocking my way down. I turned this into a positive and used the down time to film some great videos for Phorbe's daily video messages. However, once I finally came down from the hill, not three rides into being back on the road again, I got a call for a ride all the way to Santa Barbara. This was a two hour drive.

I made the drive in good time, but once I got there I was way too tired to drive the three and a half hours back home. So, I was stuck in Santa Barbara for the night...which was kind of sketch. I went to Taco Bell for dinner and found it odd that they don't have drive thrus in Santa Barbara. Yet, after a certain time, they lock up the dining rooms and you have to actually walk up to a side window to order food. Here I am, in the middle of nowhere in Santa Barbara in the dark, standing outside of Taco Bell trying to get a Chalupa. #TheStruggleIsReal

Oddly enough, Wednesday was the best day out of the week. I woke up in Santa Barabara and made the drive half way home back to LA. I figured since I was already there, I might as well put my hours in for the day. I ended up having the best shift I've ever had in a few weeks. The E3 conference was going on at the LA Convention Center so I just drove people back and forth from their hotels. Each ride was around $15 and everyone was in such a good mood that folks kept tipping me $5. So I was pulling $60 an hour. On top of that, I had two really awesome rides back to back where we spoke about nothing but Game of Thrones and the Marvel Universe. Man I learned some theories that I hope are true (Tyrion is a Targaryan??????, Bran is the Night King?????) and at the same time we played the guessing game of who's going to die (Everybody in Game of Thrones and Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man for Avengers Infinity War 2). All in all, the conclusion from these two rides were next year, 2019, is going to be litty lit.

I got home Thursday morning half past midnight and knocked out. I didn't resurface until noon where I got up did some laundry, worked on somethings for the up and coming Queen Maree website, and finsihed some things for RYTMO. By 5pm, I was back on the road again.

It was a pretty quiet night and today was going well too until I discovered that there's a nail in my front driver's side tire. #IBeOnThatStruggleBus On the flipside, I finally reached a settlement on one of the car accidents from last year. So it's not all bad.

You never know what craziness you can encounter on the road. But I wouldn't change it for a minute. I absolutely love my bonus job. It's my bonus job because it's not my main gig. Phorbe is my main gig now. Ridesharing helps out by paying the bills. This is honestly the most difficult week I've had since I began ridesharing over a year ago. It really is a blast. You get to travel all over Southern California. My reach extends from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. You make your own hours, you're your own boss, and if you pay attention and do some research you can make a pretty decent living. All in all I'm thankful and blessed that something like this exists for artists who don't want a 9-5 but still need to pay the bills. It really is God sent.

Interested in becoming a rideshare driver or want to hear more crazy stories from my time on the road? Look out for Phorbe Ridesharing's blog Confessions of a Rideshare Driver coming in August 2019. In the meantime, if you can't wait and want to get started right away, slide into @PhorbeOfficial's DMs on Instagram and I'll walk you through the step by step process of signing up and getting started.

It's a beautiful day to conquer the world, so go forth and slay!

-Queen Maree

ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 15, 2018