in the spring of 2004, after tom's birthday party, dinner, and the BAM screening of "Nothing Lasts Forever", i hopped a cab back to astoria, where i was living at the time. even though i instructed the cabbie the best i could, i wasn't really sure how to get there by car, he ended up getting lost. so the fare was an insane amount, and i told him i wasn't paying that full amount, it was his fault for getting lost. and i had just enough money to pay the usual fare. it usually cost about 15 dollars from the city to my place, so i figured it shouldn't be much more than that from brooklyn, where we just took the BQE. after about 5 minutes of arguing which increased in intensity, i threw him a 20, leapt from the cab, and ran to the stoop of my house where he followed/ran after me, only stopping at the foot of the stairs, yelling at me as i slammed my front door. i didn't sleep that well that night, and half expected him to still be there the next morning when i awoke for work.