Sophie and Sadie and an Owl Without a Name

Because sometimes things go missing and we do our best to just adapt.

Saturday was not great again. It was not great not only for me but for riders Sadie and her daughter Sophie who were visitors to Santa Monica.

I was stuck in gridlock traffic on a jam packed piece of road when I arrived to the Pier to pick up the mother and child.

Fare requests had been a bust prior to them. One drunken cancellation right as I was about to get them. Another who was trying to get cross town who didn't want to wait for the first person on their line to be picked up (who was the drunken cancel a moment later). Another with a woman with a toddler without a car seat. All of these drives to get them were not paid for anything. I was frustrated with the way the night was going but it was completely out of my control at the time.

Sadie and Sophie had missed the giant surge of passengers by chance. Sadly it was not for good reasons. You see little Sophie had dropped a stuffed Disney gecko outside on the pier. They'd requested initially in the middle of the rush to be paired with another driver but then waited when they attempted to search for it. They didn't find it unfortunately.

"I'm really sorry to hear theat. I know how important stuffed friends are for kids."

I remembered that I had one of Jonas toys in my car. It was a stuffed puppet owl. I handed it to Sophie in the back seat.

"You can borrow him for a bit for the ride but I can't let you keep him sadly. Maybe you could think of a name for him. My son hasn't named him yet."

The owl seemed to calm Sophie for a bit. It was nice to see. These little bits of happiness are so important for a child. I gave them some other ideas of places they could go for their trip. Places that have unique toys. Places that are just made of happiness and smiles. Places that exist in stories from when I was Once Loved and from my adventures being a Little Mom in a Big City.

At the end of the ride Sophie and her mother Sadie thanked me. They didn't have a name for the owl but they said they had a good time and were going to look into some of my other recommendations for their trip. I'm glad that at least part of our nights were a bit better for a moment.

For these and other rideshare stories, stay tuned. Have a great one.